Design Wall Monday: Barristers Sow A Long Blocks

My Barrister Sow A Long blocks are all done, and they are still on my design wall. Somehow, I was four short and ended up making doubles of a few of the blocks. Somehow, I must have missed a grouping of blocks.  I started this past week making the dashing for the blocks. I had an idea in my mind what I wanted and was for sure it was going to work the way I envisioned it working out....ever have one of those plans? (click on photos to get a closer look as to what I was talking about below)

Well, as usual, the best of ideas can certainly not work as planned. The far right of this photo shows the cornerstones I had planned to use. I have had this fabric in my stash and thought it was exactly what I wanted to use. I quickly decided it was not going to work the way I had envisioned it.  So, the left side of this photo is the other option. I thought about using just solid fabric for the cornerstones. No....not what I wanted either. I was going for pure simple. Cut a square and use it. Simple. Easy.......not so much.

It was not really what I wanted after all, and I had spent far too long trying to figure out exactly what it was I wanted to use. Seems like a lot more work was in order to get what I would be happy with.

I decided a square in a square was what I wanted to use for cornerstones. Nothing matching, but scrappy fabrics that were used to construct the blocks. I spent the day making ninety, 2.5 inch square in square cornerstones. Tell me what you honestly think....were they the right choice and worth all of the work involved in making them?

When I went to our local quilt shop for fabrics to use as sashings the ladies at the quilt shop frowned on these blocks. They did not care for them at all, and wanted to know who in the world would want to use such tiny pieces in  blocks. Yes, some of the pieces have the smallest of pieces but those are the blocks I love the most. The ladies suggested to use a dark blue sashing to tone down all the busyness of the blocks. I could tell this was not a quilt they were interested in and really had no interest in giving any suggestions or advice on what fabrics would be good to use. It was just a gentle reminder why I like to buy online....avoid the snooty ladies at the quilt shop all together.

I did not buy anything that day at the quilt shop, but instead, planned what I would use from my stash of fabrics I had on hand. The pink is far from the dark they suggested, but using the scrappy pieces with the pink is what I really loved.

You may remember this is one of two quilts that are serving as my Jubilee quilts and I am really glad I went with what I knew would make me happy, even if it was a lot more work than I originally wanted to do on the sashings and cornerstones.

I hope to get this almost completed by the weekend, and start on finishing up the other one, which is made from all Christmas fabrics. That one will be finished differently from this quilt, and I am excited to get started on that one as well. Of course I have a plan and hope that plan works the way I have it pictured in my mind. Ahem...we will see!

I am linking up with Judy over at Patchwork Times for design wall Monday. Have a great week and thanks for looking at my project this week!