For me, selecting fabric is the best part of making a quilt. I enjoy every little part of the fabric picking process. The other day was working on this UFO (6" blocks that I was not going to make any more of.. setting them and calling them DONE!). It was time in the process to look at sashing fabrics and I thought I'd share how I work through it.
Ready?
My 3 Easy Steps to Auditioning Sashing fabric
Come on..it's fun!
Step 1 - collect a pile of fabric that is IN the blocks. Then pull some fabrics INTO this stack that are NOT in the blocks. I'm looking for a sashing that will complement a lot of the blocks. And if my options, note I said OPTIONS, look good on the table, they might look GREAT in the quilt!
Pull fabrics and select several that might make great sashing.
Step 2 -The key for me is my design wall. I can stick up several options at once.
Then I put the blocks over top
And take a photo.. several photos.
What do I think?
The peach has potential. It makes the quilt seem light and lively.
The Linen strip looks more elegant, refined, I'm liking it.
The pale yellow seems a tad wishy washy.
Let's look at the peach first. I do NOT have enough of the one fabric. So I find some others that are similar.
I take all the blocks off the wall and put up 3 peach fabrics
I then put the blocks back, with brown corner stones
What do I think? Well there is a LOT is blending of the blocks into the sashing. I want these blocks to stand out more.. not blend.
Take photos.. post on Facebook and Instagram, and at my online Quilt Group
Take all the blocks off the wall and put the linen up. This time I plopped a pink corner stone in.
Take more photos.. post on Facebook and Instagram and at my online Quilt Group
A lot of people love the linen, but not the hot pink
Change out the corner stones to the brown, and put up a sample of the Piano key border it will have.
Take photos.. post on Facebook and Instagram and at my online Quilt Group
I like this.. I like it A LOT. It is NOT what I had expected and that is what makes it even more fun!
Now leave it on my design wall for several days to mellow... to see if I REALLY like it.
Take closer looks.. here is a block fabric audition. I had to make 6 blocks to get this quilt to the size I wanted it.
Step 3 -CUT your sashing and corner stones out
Until you actually CUT FABRIC you can't tell what you have going on.
Take photos.. post on Facebook and at my online Quilt Group
yes... I like this. The setting triangles will also be linen. I decided to take the corners all the way out to the ends rathr than set them just in the center.
Do you know how to do on point settings? I have a great lesson in my "Beyond the Basics" book CLICK HERE. I teach you how to do a lot of techniques, one being figure out on point settings!
What are YOU sewing?? I will pick the 2 winners from the Double Wedding Ring blog post an my "55" blog post TOMORROW... one more chance to get in on the giveaways!
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