It’s Week 5 of the Rocking Chair Quilt Along!  If you were thinking that you missed last week’s post, that’s because we didn’t have one!  Last week was a catch up week to get us ready for the final steps of making our quilts.  

This week we are making our sashing strips. And, truthfully, I’m laughing to think I designed a quilt with sashing because I always curse this step when making a quilt. It’s not that it’s hard, just that at this point I am ready to see my blocks sewn up into my final product. 

The sashing in the Rocking Chair Quilt is a little unique in that it is patterned rather than just a plain strip of fabric.  However, making the striped pattern is pretty easy if you sew long (WOF) strips together and then cut them according to the directions.  And I can’t say enough about my Stripology Ruler, it really helps get a straight cut on these strips—and it is by far my most used tool for cutting!

The trickiest part this week comes when sewing the sashing together into rows.  You will notice in the directions that you need to pay close attention to the direction in which you place your sashing pieces. You will want to make sure that the background ends and Fabric C ends (or Fabric A,C,E,G,I for the ombre version) are arranged properly so that an “X” forms at the intersection of some of the block and sashing rows.  You can use Fig. 10 on the pattern to help you lay them out. 

But now that you have all the pieces of your quilt made, you may also find it helpful to visualize the quilt by laying the entire design out on the floor.  (Or if you have an empty wall, I recently just purchased this Design Wall from Amazon—nothing fancy but it really helped make sure my quilt rows were correct)

Once your sashing rows are made, you are done for this week.  Get ready for next week when we sew the block rows together and finish our quilt top!

If you are participating on Instagram make sure to post a progress photo (even if you are a little bit behind!) by Sunday 10/9 at midnight.  This week I will be picking one person to win a $25 gift card to Liza Taylor Handmade!