A work in progress

My online Friendship Swap group had a "Back to Our Roots" swap this year, recalling our founding around Sylvia's Bridal Sampler, a pattern by Jennifer Chiaverini.   The group started swapping those 6" blocks some years ago, and occasionally we swap them again.   Most of the blocks aren't too hard, although there are a few appliqued ones with tiny pieces that I have never attempted.  2017 was the year for us to run the swap again, and coincidentally the Moda fabric company also had a free online 6" block of the week called "Blockheads."  Some of these were very complicated, so I made some 9" blocks instead.  The one closest to the foreground was made at 9" just because I wanted to fussy cut a William Morris charm square.

I really shouldn't do blocks of the week because I hate having to get the project box out for a half hour and then putting it away again.  I generally end up doing 3-4 weeks at a time and then get impatient to finish before the year is out.  As it is, the Blocksheads project is still going on but I dropped out several weeks ago.  I'm glad to combine these two projects to get a larger piece anyway.   I combined some Civil War fabrics that my Mom gave me from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum with the William Morris charm pack and other scraps from my stash.  The swap blocks were all different fabrics, making a colorful quilt.

Now it's time to put all these blocks together, and I laid them all out over the weekend with a black print fabric for the sashing.  I dipped into my orphan block box and then made a few more blocks to get it all to the 48" x 60" size.  As you can see, the 9" blocks are interspersed and will end up being focal points with a little wider sashing.  Because it's so busy, my plan is to add a smallish print border all the way around instead of adding a scrappy pieced one.  Will have to see when it's all put together.  I have only put the vertical sashing in on about half the blocks so far, and when I finish that process, I'll figure out the size for the cross pieces.  Matching the blocks up so that the rows align a bit of a delicate operation.

As I put it together, I think about how I'll quilt it.  Should I do it in two halves or all together?   Should I do an overall loose stipple (hard for me to achieve consistency) or do a different overall design or quilt each block individually (a little better)?  Or should I simply ask a long armer to do an overall pattern?