I hope you enjoyed last week’s tips on borders for your quilts. This week, I will talk about sashing in quilts. Sashing is often an after thought and not looked upon as a design element. But, I will show you this week that sashing is a design element. I’ll talk about the ways it is used while showing you some examples. Let’s get started!

What is Quilt Sashing

Sashing is simply defined as plain strips of fabric separating blocks. That is historically what it was used for, whether it was in a one block style quilt or in a sampler. Many quilters also used it to make a quilt larger if their blocks alone did not give them the size they wanted. Today, sashing can be pieced as well. In many quilts I have made, I have used sashing that is pieced in some way to create a secondary design. 

Plain Sashing: This type of sashing is used to expand the size of a quilt but it can also be used to bring more attention to the blocks by creating separation. Here’s an example:

In Stars Ablaze above, I used a plain sashing to set apart the blocks so they would be the “stars” of the quilt. 

There is also another version of plain sashing where a connecting square is used between each piece of sashing. These are called corner stones. I used that element in my pattern, Reunion, below:

The little black squares between the sashing strips add another design element to carry the black print evenly through the quilt top. It also makes the blocks in the quilt look more aligned.

This last example of plain sashing plays with the design of the block to create an interesting look. The blocks in the quilt below, Sunset Sky, have a black stitch & flip corner to make all four sides look angled.

By adding the matching plain black sashing between the blocks, I’ve made the blocks look almost circular. If I had just smooshed the blocks together without sashing, it would still be interesting since the corners would create a “diamond” look, but that was not my plan. Here’s what it would look like without sashing:

Still pretty, but you can see the difference in design.

Pieced Sashing: Now onto pieced sashing. I use this kind of sashing to create a secondary design. The most common secondary design I like to create is a star design. Here’s two examples:

In both Posey Patch, left and Summer Bouquets, I used a square corner stone to connect my sashing strips. But, I also used a stitch & flip corner on the 4 sides of each sashing strips so when they were joined with the blocks and corner stones, I got stars in between the blocks!

I also made a fun design by piecing my corner stones and pairing those with plain sashing as I did in Homestead Trail.

And then I carried the nine-patch design into the border to make an interesting and unique border!

Sashing Tips

Here’s some sashing rules of thumb that I follow.

Tip #1: Keep the sashing the same width throughout. Unless you’re going for a “wonky” look. I like to make my sashing a width that is divisible into the block size, but I’m also careful not to make it too wide. If I have 6″ blocks, my sashing is usually no wider than 2″ finished. With a 12″ block, I can go up to a width of 3″ if I like.

Tip #2: Plan ahead if you want plain sashing, sashing with cornerstones or if you want to create a design using the sashing like in my examples above. The main reason for this is helping with picking out fabric that coordinates well with your blocks.

Tip#3: The easiest way to do plain sashing is to have shorter strips joining the blocks into the rows you want and then having longer strips, the length of the rows, to join them together. However, if you are doing corner stones, all your sashing strips will be the length of your blocks on all sides. Here’s an example of each:

The quilt example on the left shows the block size strips to make the rows and the longer strips to join them. On the right, you can see the difference when you want to add cornerstones.

Tip #4: Choosing the color of your sashing will dictate the look of your quilt. You can choose to make your sashing the same color as the background fabrics of the blocks so your sashing is less noticeable or you can make it a completely different color. The second option will chop your quilt up more. Look at my Stars Ablaze and the Posey Patch quilts above. You can see that the blocks look like they are floating in the first, but in the second, they are separated and appear locked in place. 

Well, I hope this little tutorial on what sashing can add to your quilt design was fun for you. If you simply want to make your quilt bigger, use sashing but also know that you can make a quilt look completely different with it.

Leave a comment or ask a question below and you will be entered into a drawing for Stars Ablaze.

Happy Quilting!
Deanne