Road Trip QAL, almost a flimsy!

I’ve been working on the dark version of my Road Trip QAL, and the top is almost together. I struggle for awhile on what to use for the sashing, and how to lay it all out. I did some sketching on a pad of paper, and finally came up with something I liked. I was inspired a little by Emily, who is hosting this QAL, by using a piano key type strip to fill of the gaps left between the smaller blocks. I didn’t want to have huge expanses of sashing, so it solved my problem quite well.

It’s not quite finished yet because I still need to add the last strip of sashing all the way around the perimeter. I really like how the solid black lets the blocks really stand out. It’s almost like they are just floating there. I will probably use the same layout for the light version. I might move some blocks around if it seems to flow better that way though. I also am still undecided on the sashing colour for the light quilt. I’ll have to do some auditioning later.

I made a few more rainbow log cabins yesterday as well. I was surprised by how many different blue fabrics I had, since I don’t think I sew with blue a lot. Thing 1 really likes that little scrap of dolphin on the upper left block. It was the only piece I had, and it was so nicely fussy cut and everything!

A question I had about these blocks was whether or not I worried about the width of the strip as I sewed them together. The answer is, not really. If I had sewed a narrower strip on one side of the block, then when I did the opposite side I tried to remember to do a wider one to even it out a little, but that was about it. I didn’t really worry about value placement as you would in a traditional log cabin either. If the colour was right, in it went. I had enough blue scraps to not repeat the same fabric in one block, but if I had a smaller selection, I would have repeated a fabric.

I’m really liking how these blocks are looking so far. Thing 1 has been rearranging them on my design wall from time to time, and it is really interesting to see how her creative mind can work so differently from mine and still produce such amazing results. She uses the blocks to draw pictures, as it were. Yesterday, she used them to make a castle tower. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.