More Than Halfway!!!

Odd numbers are so much fun! I need to sew 25 chunks to make this quilt, so I never got half done, but now I'm more than halfway done! I know I'm not really halfway finished the quilt, but I am more than halfway done sewing the chunks. I know what I want for the borders for this quilt, and they are two simple borders, so once all the chunks are done, it shouldn't take too long to assemble and put borders on.

Here is Chunk 13, it's a little one. I think it's a corner.

Here is Chunk 14. I'm thinking this one goes near the center, but I haven't looked at the layout since I printed it out. I do know what the finished quilt should look like, and I'm anxious to see if mine comes out as nice as the other quilts did.

I got this bonus blue quilt assembled, well, the center anyway. I don't have a clue what I want to do for borders, and I don't want to mess with that right now, so I think I'm going to fold this up and set it aside. I'm won't set it aside forever, just until I get the deadline quilts done. I think I will probably stick with just blue and white for the borders, unless I decide to go patriotic. Adding another color at this stage might just look weird. I have about 10 blocks done for the completely scrappy version of this quilt.

I started assembling the Shamrock quilt. I only have row 1 together with the rows of sashing above and below it. I think it will be nice. When I get a bit more done, I'll post a picture. I really like the look of string blocks without sashing, but I needed a larger quilt than what my green sting blocks would have made on their own.

As I'm assembling this quilt, I am realizing a HUGE plus to using sashing with cornerstones. I squared my string blocks to 6.5", I cut the sashing 2 x 6.5", and the cornerstones 2" square. String blocks end up with all bias edges when you piece them on the diagonal like I usually do. Sometimes it is hard to sew them together without them going wonky, especially because there are so many seams. With the sashing and cornerstones, I can line the blocks up exactly the way the should be, and can easily make sure they are not stretching out of shape. I'm sewing them with the string blocks down towards the feed dogs, and the sashing up. It is going so well sewing it this way, I know I'll be making more string quilts with sashing. I won't make all of them with sashing, because I do like the look of them without it, but if I need an easy quilt, sashing makes it easier. If any of you have been avoiding making string blocks because of the bias edges, try sashing and you'll find it very easy to stay on track.