My Jacob's Ladder Project, # 7

Decided to lay out the 2 quilts so that matching colors were in the same positions on both quilts.

As you can see, I still need 2 more blocks in each.  Not to worry though.  The fabrics have been found in my stash, just not the inclination to build them yet.  So...

Have been working with the sashing off and on these past few weeks.  I cut out sashing thinking I only needed the strips 3 1/2 inches wide.  Got half of what I needed cut out and found that I wasn't going to have enough for both quilts.  Dilemma now as the fabric was available in 2011 but not now.  Searched several sources on the internet including the manufacturer and it's "gone", not even showing up on e bay.  Also checked local quilt shops, none had it.  I'm sure there is some still out there as I bought the fabric last summer at my local store but in their clearance bolts.  At least I think I bought what they had left.  At the time didn't know how much I'd need (not too well planned, right?).

Then I decided I better look at the old quilt picture again and double check how I was going to make the cornerstones.  Oops, they are a 4-patch, not the single piece my brain thought it was.  Darn, I have to make the sashing wider so the 4-patch is at least the same size as 4 patches in the blocks.  The old quilt had the 4 patches at a larger size than the 4 patches in the blocks but I didn't quite like that look and my fabric was running out.

Decided that another look on the internet was in order, looking for a similar pattern in the same colors.  Took a while and finally ended up on Fabric.com and browsed all of their red and white fabrics.  Eureka!  Found one that is close to the same pattern.  So it's on order, expecting it to arrive any day now.

Meanwhile, back to the 4-patch and the sashing.  In order to make the 4-patch work, my sashing now has to be 4 1/2 inches wide uncut.  That meant, all those pieces I had cut out earlier had to be widened.  Of course, now I had to add another 1 1/2 inches to each strip.  There was enough fabric to get that done for the 30 sashes I had already cut.  Got that done last week.

Next dilemma:  I wanted both quilts to look the same other than the positions of the colors in a block.  So with two different sashing fabrics, the layout of those have to match in both quilts.  So, the original sashing will be laid in horizontal rows and the new sashing will be laid out in vertical rows.

Still debating on whether to have the light background  in the 4-patches match the sashing fabric or match the muslin background used in the blocks.  The original quilt had used the sashing fabric in the 4-patch corner stones.  None of the blocks in the old quilt had muslin as a background fabric but had used other fabrics, scraps or old dresses most likely.  I probably won't make that decision until the new sashing arrives and I play around with the look.  Though I am leaning toward using muslin in the cornerstones but then it will really look different than the original old quilt.

Anyway, here's what things look like so far without the new sashing.

The blocks may be rearranged again when the final 4 blocks are added..


Continued in Part #7B