You may notice a gap between these two sections of sashed together blocks … there is actually another column of three blocks that is supposed to go between these two sections.

I’m trying to minimize the number of long seams I have to do in this center 5×5 grid of blocks. As I discovered when sewing together the 4×4 grid in the bottom right of this quilt, when you’re stitching a seam longer than a couple of blocks, it gets really awkward to hold everything in place while you stitch – the weight of those other blocks drag down the bit you’re currently trying to sew together.

To avoid those long seams with the larger 5×5 grid of blocks in the center, I needed a game plan. First, I pieced each of the four 2×2 corners together. Then I stitched these two 2×1 sections on top of the two lower corners. Next, I will stitch the 1×2 section between the two upper corners and attach it to both. Finally, I will sash the center block and the two below it, and attach them to the two 2×3 sections I’m writing about here. This will leave me with a single seam to sew that is five blocks long … all the other seams will be three blocks or shorter.

I’m planning to use a similar technique for sewing the entire 13×13 grid together, where I will only have to do one seam that is thirteen blocks long. Whew!

Since the 13×13 grid is not evenly divisible by three, I broke it into 4×4 sections in the corners, a 5×5 section in the middle, and 4×5 sections on each side. Then I can sew each bottom and middle section together, then sew those to each other, sew the three top sections together … and there will be just one long seam to attach the top section on to the rest of the quilt.

Well, technically, the triangle borders will have to be sewn on to the quilt, so it’s five super long seams to assemble the entire quilt. Still, not too bad.

I’m pretty darn excited that my next sashing post is going to show the entire center section completed – I can’t wait for that gap to be filled!