Sashing Pre-Quilted Blocks - Tutorial

Adding backing strips with edges ironed under over batting, which
has been whip stitched to block seam allowances

I've never made a "quilt-as-you-go" quilt before. This piece, however, was my attempt to both satisfy my personal challenge to complete a 5 x 7 art piece each week along with preparing a piece to enter in the Contemporary QuiltArt Association's upcoming "Salsa!" Show.

I have to admit I'm a bit behind on my weekly 5x7's, but putting together the Salsa quilt, as well as some other projects, have taken priority for me right now.  I'll be getting back to my    5 x 7's soon enough.

Front side of my Salsa quilt with sashing

So, now that I have all my blocks done, how do I put it all together without having a problem of differing amounts of layers in the sashing versus the blocks?  The way I solved this puzzle is to start with making the sashing and puting the front side all together.

Then, I turned it over and carefully cut pieces of batting to fit right between the blocks seam allowances, so that the batting would be consistently uniform across the quilt.  I chose to do the vertical pieces between the blocks, then the long horizontal strips, and afterwards the vertical borders.

Batting cut and added between blocks vertically

After cutting all the batting to size, I did a long whip-stitch to hold the batting in place while I will be freemotion quilting the sashing.  I then cut pieces of the backing fabric about 3/4" wider than the finished width of the sashing and pressed under the edges of these strips with my steam iron.

Batting Whip-stitched to seam allowance of blocks

Next, I carefully hand-stitched down the strips over the batting and seam allowances of the blocks.

While this might not be the most expedient (or fast) method, I think the outcome will be quite nice.  Next step is going to be freemotion quilting the sashing/borders!

Batting added other than vertical border; backing
strips added to vertical centers

Backing strips all added and ready to hand-stitch

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How to Use Your Design Wall

Years back, I never used a design wall.  I might sketch out a design on graph paper or in my sketchbook, but then I pretty much just went with it and constructed as close to what I'd drawn as I could.  It certainly is possible to get a good result from that... but it's kind of hit or miss.  It's much more effective to use a design wall.

Your design wall can simply be a piece of batting that you pin up on a wall anywhere you have some space to step back from it (preferably at least 8-12 feet or 3-4 meters) and be able to look at your design as it progresses.

First try- lower left seems a bit heavy with the
dark backgrounds

The change for me came when I started taking a Design series - classes for quilters that taught you the basic fundamentals of design.  Our teacher always said "Make visual decisions Visually."  In other words, you have to actually look at something to see if it's going to work, rather than just thinking it will work.

Tonight it was time to put my Salsa blocks all together.  So, up they went on the design wall.  I arranged them, then stepped back and took a look (and a picture).

I then rearranged them several times, each time checking to see how I liked the arrangement.

I like having the two red backgrounds on opposite corners

Looking through a reducing glass or at a photograph can also help you get a sense of how well the design will work from afar.

After determining the placement of the blocks, I then had to decide which fabic I was going to use for the sashing.  To do this, I pinned different pieces of fabric up and put the blocks on top, stepped back and looked at the overall effect.

The green fabric to the right is bold and seemed like a good prospect, but when I tried out the black with red/yellow/orange batik, I think I found a winner!

Salsa blocks with sashing complete

Next step will adding batting/backing and freemotion quilting of the sashing.

Make sure to check back this weekend for our first Design Wall Weekend Blog Link-up Party!

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One of the best places to learn FreeMotion Quilting: Leah Day's FreeMotion Quilting Project