English Country Garden BOM - Finishing the Quilt Top

By now you have 12 applique blocks, yes?No? They are all on Etsy, Payhip and Patterns to Print, but if you're after the whole set to start at the beginning, keep your eyes out as it will be released some time in April in a format much cheaper than getting them individually and eventually the single blocks will disappear.So, everyone with 12 blocks! All together they look like this:And today I'm going to talk us through getting them to look like this:And tomorrow I'll go through my ideas for quilting it.The blocks can be arranged in whatever layout you like, but if you want it to look like mine, you will want four rows of three blocks.SASHINGYou will need 31x 9 1/2" x 3 1/2" background matching strips, 62x 2 3/8" background matching squares and 16x 4 1/4" squares of contrasting fabric.Make a total of 31 piecesEssentially, the sashing is just a strip of black, or other co-ordinating fabric to match your block fabric choices, book-ended by flying geese. I'm making the flying geese the quick way that makes four at a time and will then mix them up.Take two background squares and put right sides together in opposite corners of the contrasting fabric square. Draw a line across the squares.Sew 1/4" seam either side of the line. Cut down the middle.Press open with the seams to the background colour.Align another square to the remaining accent colour corner. Draw a line diagonally as shown and sew 1/4" either side. Repeat for the other piece.Cut down the line and press open.Trim to 2" x 3 1/2".Sew a goose to each end of the strip with the points facing in.CORNERSTONESYou will need 20x 4 1/4" squares of contrasting fabricsMake a total of 20 blocksThe corner blocks are quarter square triangles. Here's the quick and easy way I made mine. Take two squares and position them right sides together. Mark across one of the diagonals.Sew 1/4" to either side of the line and cut down the middle to create two HST units. Press seams (preferably open). Repeat to make 10 of these with five pairs.Aligning the diagonal seams, place two HSTs right sides together, making sure that different fabrics are touching each other. Pick these matches at random, or use the same pair rotated for an hourglass look. Mark across the other diagonal.Sew either side of the line with 1/4" seam allowance again and cut down the middle. Press to finish off your corner stone blocks!PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHERSew a sashing strip between each block, so you will have four rows of block, sashing, block, sashing, block. Press seams.Sew together five rows for between the block rows, plus one for the top and bottom of the quilt. These go in the order of sashing, cornerstone, sashing, cornerstone, sashing. Press seams.Sew a thin sashing row to a block row, then another sashing row until the top is all one piece. Align the seams and pin if it helps you to do that. Give it a good press and starch it if you like ready for basting and quilting.You may also want to go about basting your quilt at this stage if you are keen to get quilting. I'm not going to do mine just yet, but I'll show you a sketch of some ideas for your quilt tomorrow if you want to custom quilt it. Feel free to straight line it or send it off to a longarmer if that's more your thing!