I need advice on finishing my challenge quilt

I've got 19 blocks using marbled fabric as a background. Eight of them are from my guild's mystery challenge last year, and the others I made in the Friday Block Party. I'm going to make a word block for the last block, fyi.
I've laid them out on the solid black that's in some of the blocks (top half of the photo) and a Robert Kaufmann print of roses (bottom half). I've got closer shots below, with the solid at the left. Which do you prefer? Or should I eliminate the sashing all together and just join the blocks? You can click on the photos to enlarge.

Thanks to Pam of Passionate Purple Quilter for her package of selvages, many of them purple, as well as a whole bunch from The Very Hungry Caterpillar fabrics. I'm going to have fun with these. She also sent a needle case in bright fabrics (what, no purple???), which I'm going to put in my quilting bag.

Beautiful blocks

These are the blocks I received in my guild's mystery exchange. I chose that light marbled fabric because I knew it would be would be a challenge to work with, and I also threw in a metre of black. I got a huge variety of blocks with lots of pinwheels and hourglasses. Laura made me a liberated star (and I made her four. see post below) Everyone used the light as a background fabric and brought in other colours. I really like all of them. Cheryl (top left) took everyone's leftover triangles and made a liberated block, and Audrey (top, second from left) took the plunge and cut into her red hand dyed fabric for my block.
I'd been working with that same fabric in the Friday block party challenge over the winter, so I have four 12.5 inch blocks and 2 10 inch blocks using the same fabric, as well as bits and pieces left over. I'll put borders on the smaller blocks, make a few more, and I have a lovely throw-sized top.

Chimneys, cornerstones and 9-patches

I've been sewing precision blocks lately in a not-very precise way. I've been part of the Friday block party for most weeks, although I've passed on some of excessively triangular blocks. My accuracy has improved though, which was my goal. Wonky or not, it's good to figure out some consistency in cutting and sewing. So I took one of the blocks we made several weeks back, and made 11 more in blues and greens and whites, using a mixture of new prints, 30s reproductions, gifts from friends, and whatever happened to be in the stash in those colours.

Here's the flimsy with hubby's legs. I'm debating about whether to put that double blue check around as a border. Right now, it's 39 by 52, and I will bind it in the check, as well as use it on the back. It's a Michael Miller print called Clown Check that I got for $2/metre in the Fabricland sale bin. (Fabricland is a Canadian chain store. Here in Winnipeg we don't have many choices in fabric stores.) I modified the sashing strips a bit to get a nine-patch in the intersections, which I think is fun.

In real, the diagonals in blue and green are a bit more prominent. I was planning on giving this to the local children's hospital for sick boy babies. I think part of my accuracy problems in this quilt (I had to cut 2 inch strips in various sizes, and somehow they didn't always work out) were due to the colours -- those blues and blue/greens don't contrast enough with the green cutting mat. I realized too late I should have used my pink mat (which is a lot smaller) for the contrast.

Happy Pi day!

I celebrated Pi day at my house by sewing a couple of 12 inch blocks for the Friday Block party and having some friends over for three kinds of pie: tourtiere, spinach and feta quiche, and pumpkin pie for dessert. (I live with math geeks and they wanted to celebrated 3/14 or 3.14, the ratio number between the diameter and the circumference of a circle. I'm sure there's other math geeks who can explain it better than me.) The chimney and cornerstones block below is using greens and blue with a bright white on white (it's actually a Christmas print, but hey, who cares?).
This one is the fifth or sixth one I've made using that light marbled fabric as the background. This is a bit too muted for my taste, but instead of cutting up yardage for all those 2 inch squares, I went for ones I already had, and they were this light marbled pink. The block party is about improving precision piecing skills, but for me, it's also about pushing my colour preferences and trying out combinations I might not use for a whole quilt.

Here they are side by side. Because I was using scraps and precut squares for the left one, I pieced the centre block.

Happy Pi/Pie day. Any day with three kinds of pie is a good day, I figure.

Little projects finished

I've had a couple of weeks of finishing a few things, interspersed with periods of no sewing. I've finally completed a tea cosy and table runner set that is part of an upcoming silent auction for my sons' school. I used 2 inch strips of b/w fabrics with squares and rectangles of bright prints. The runner finishes at 16 by 64 (from point to point) and has a black solid backing that I brought to the front for the binding. My friend Val machine quilted it in a swirly pattern -- thanks very much! (My old Elna is wonderful except I can't drop the feed dogs and even with covering them I can't seem to get the hang of machine quilting.)

Here's my latest square for the Friday Block Party. This was easier than many, since it only had the HSTs to worry about. My precision piecing is getting better. A friend commented that these precision blocks aren't my usual style -- that's what makes them interesting. I can manage one a week, and I'm getting better with HSTs and the quarter inch thing. That can only be good, even if I prefer wonkiness and free-piecing and scrappy. I'm building skills and following rules for an hour a week, and the rest of the time, I'm doing what I want.

Like these wonky stars, made from leftover triangles from my friend Andrea. I was helping her manage her scraps and she didn't want these. There were exactly 16, just enough to make two wonky stars for the Australian Bushfire quilt project (see sidebar.) I pieced the centres from leftovers after we cut most of Andrea's leftover 2.5 inch strips into 4.5 inch bricks for a scrappy Chinese Coin quilt.

Here's four more in brights. The print in the bottom left star is 60 inches wide. I bought about 90 inches of it so I can back a single quilt with it (it was $5/metre) and I cut off five inches to use in these stars.

Great gifts during a not-so-great week

I got three gifts this week that I'd like you to admire with me. They all cheered me up during a bad week when I've been in pain due to neck and back injuries I sustained in a car accident a week ago. I'm recovering well, but a pain in the neck is just a big pain in neck.

Above is the miniature quilt Tracy at From my Scrapbag sent me. She's making 50 or more minis this year, and this was one of them. Click on this to see the batik one I sent her. I like the colours and I think the framed squares is a great pattern, big or little. Thanks Tracy. She also sent me a pattern called Dipped in Chocolate, which is a framed four patch in browns and pinks. I forgot to take a picture, sorry.
Sharon from Indigo Threads sent me a huge selection of I Spy prints and patches - I counted at least 120 different ones. All except one cowboy boot print are new to me. I had forgotten about her offer, and it was a great surprise to come home from a medical appointment to find these. Thanks so much. I have 20 or so prints of my own put aside for an I Spy quilt, so I might be making one soon with the addition of this bounty.

And one more surprise gift. My friend Yvonne from South Africa sent me this lovely hand stitched Christmas card and a handmade spoon from reclaimed metals made by Zulu crafters. They are both beautiful.

I made another block for the Friday Block Party Quilt Pixie is hosting every week so we can improve our precision piecing. I did OK, although a few points could be better.

Friday block party

I joined Quilt Pixie's Friday block party, where she picks a block, posts links to the directions, and asks others to join her. The purpose is to improve precision piecing skills. I'm OK but not great at that, so I decided to join in. This first block doesn't have too many points chopped off, but it did turn out 1/4 inch bigger than its supposed to be, so my seam allowances must be slightly off. Pixie suggests starching the fabric before cutting, which I didn't do. Maybe next week. I'm going to take some time this weekend to sew more crumb blocks, the opposite of precision piecing, or maybe work on my words fail me quilt. Or maybe not much of anything.