The Penny QAL - Sashing

Yes, I know - we all dislike dealing with sashing but I promise it isn't too bad for the Penny Quilt Pattern. I have a couple videos and a few tips for you.

If you didn't cut your sashing strips when you cut your other fabric, go ahead and start there. I always like to cut all of my fabric at once because I dislike cutting fabric just as much as I dislike adding it to my quilt. It is an important part of this pattern though, you can't really skip it!

Here are the tips. Some of these are more about adding the sashing to the quilt and you may not be doing that this week, but I know that some people have started this so I wanted to go ahead and share them this week since they have to do with the sashing.

• Pay attention to the graphics in the pattern that show where the sashing starts and end - this will be the trickiest part of the sashing. Since there are parts of the quilt that will be trimmed off when you finish your quilt top, we don't need the sashing to extend all the way to the end of every block. 
• If you like the flout the rules like I do, you can oversize your sashing pieces a little bit and not have to worry about measuring everything to be the right size. If you do this, please pin the sashing when adding it to your quilt because this will help prevent stretching.
• Make sure that when you cut the WOF strips from your fabric, your fabric is folded straight. Otherwise, when you unfold the fabric, your sashing piece will be crooked.

Here is video number 1 - I am talking about where to line up the sashing pieces with your blocks and a shortcut to cutting your long strips down to the right size.

And in video number 2 - this is a video about making sure everything stays lined up when you are adding the sashing to your quilt. This is a tip I have been using for years and it is a game changer! It can be hard to keep blocks lined up when there is a long piece of sashing between them. 

On Tuesday morning at 11am PST, I will be doing a live Q&A session on Instagram - if you have any questions about the pattern, the quiltalong, or anything else, you can send me the questions in advance or type them into the comments during the video.