Well, here we are, more than three weeks after I posted about finishing the final block, and I feel like I don’t have a lot to show for it.

Because before I could attach the triangle and corner blocks to the glorious completed center section, I had to attach ridiculously skinny (finishing at just 1/4″ wide) sashing strips along all four sides of the center section.

As it turns out, sewing four 65-inch-long seams takes a while.

I’d already cut out the skinny strips at my last quilting retreat, so the next step was to mark those strips for stitching.

First, I marked the actual stitching lines, 1/4″ in from each long edge. Time-consuming, but easy.

But I also wanted to make some marks in the seam allowance along each side that I could line up with the edges of the blocks to make sure that I was on track as I attached the strips to the center of the quilt.

On the side that would attach to the triangle borders, I made a mark every 5″ to denote the edge of each triangle.

On the side that would attach to the center, I made a mark at 4.5″ for the end of the first square block, then another mark 1/2″ away for the inter-block sashing, then another mark 4.5″ after that for the end of the next block, and so on.

At the last minute, I decided to put a mark at the halfway point of each 5″ on the triangle side and each 4.5″ on the square side, which I would be able to line up with the center of each triangle and square block.

Just in case I had messed up the measurements, I also left a little extra length at each end of each sashing strip (you can see the extra bits dangling off the corner in the photo).

And then I got to work stitching the sashing strips to the center of the quilt. It was super tedious, but I was so glad I had spent the time making all those marks on the strips. Everything lined up so nicely. I even remembered to add an extra 1/4″ at each end of the left and right skinny sashing strips, for where they overlapped with the top and bottom skinny sashing strips.

The whole process took me seventeen days. The only downside was that I knew I’d need to repeat that amount of stitching twice more: once to sew on the triangle borders and then again to attach the outer borders.

So, look to hear from me in another 17+ days when I finally finish the next round of borders.