Over the past year I’ve been making mystery blocks of the month to complete Sherri’s mystery block a month quilt alongside the charity quilts I’ve made from the test blocks, which I named my ‘stretch project’.
Twelve months, or more accurately twelve blocks later I’ve realised that now the real work starts! My quilt hasn’t miraculously come together of its own accord, that’s clearly down to me. Sherri shared detailed instructions on how to assemble and finish the quilt, and I am broadly following them, but broadly is the key word here.
If you’ve been following my making journey for each of the blocks you’ll have seen each one on its own, but you won’t have seen them together.
Until now that is.
Don’t they look great?
I’m so glad I chose to add a second ‘green’ log cabin border option early on in the block assembly road. I know now that I wouldn’t have had enough of the original greens to keep them consistent throughout the quilt, and as they were designs I’d had for a while topping up my supply wasn’t an easy option.
The spacing between the blocks in the photo was to help me decide which sashing and borders to add, but before we get to that, here’s a reminder of each month’s blocks:
My plan to finish this quilt
Each of the log cabin (outer) strips on the monthly blocks are 2.5 inches so with seam allowances each piece is 2 inches wide. Sherri suggests using two 1.5inch sashes between each block, so the overall finished width would be 2.5 inches, but I wanted to maximise the width, as far as I can without it looking daft - but also to use the material I already had.
In the end with a fair bit of ‘mathing’ I worked out that my sashing (internal borders) between blocks could be 2 inches at the most, so with two sashes the same width, that’s 3.5 inches when complete, which I’m happy with.
By far the trickier decision was deciding on which fabrics to use, and I spent a lot of time staring at fabrics on my kitchen floor.
A lot of time.
And a lot of time swapping in and out different colourways and patterns. But I have finally decided, and my sashings are cut. They’re not sewn yet, but they are cut so there’s no going back now!
I have also decided on the colours for, and sewn, the ‘posts’ which will be at the intersections of each block, and while the colours complement the internal border colours they aren’t from the same fabrics, so you’ll have to wait until the quilt top is completed to see it in its entirety.
I’ve decided to add three outer borders around the whole quilt, which will add to the width of the quilt, and I’ve chosen the fabrics for these. I haven’t decided on the width for each border, but my instinct is to start with a narrow(er) border nearest to the quilt blocks and widen the borders as I go. More ‘mathing’ will be needed when I reach this stage, as my remaining material is limited, and while I think it’s enough I don’t have an endless supply.
It’s been a decision heavy time for this quilt, so while I was in decision making mode I even selected which fabric to use as a binding, eschewing my usual scrappy approach. Even I’m shocked at myself!
There’s still plenty of sewing to be done, but I’m really looking forward to seeing how this comes together.