Midnight Crossing - Inner Sashing

I was away on travel to Tennessee for a get together with college friends so sewing progress came to a temporary halt. But there was still forward movement on Midnight Crossing. I'd decided and ordered backing fabric online and it arrived while I was away. I am so pleased with my choice. Seeing it next to the cover photo on lid of the kit box showed off its great coordination. I liked how the X's on the backing fabric mirrored the centers of each block and the corner posts. I am also glad I reflect both major colors of Halloween instead of just an orange as I was considering with an orange floral option. The smaller scale print will be easier to match than the large floral, too. I may even use it for the binding instead of black.

Once home, after unpacking and doing laundry, I got back to sewing by making the horizontal sashings. Fortunately this step is not very thought intensive, since traveling kind of wears me out. The checkered corner posts were already made so I only needed to cut the cream print rectangles and join with the posts. Three horizontal rows were needed with three corner posts and four rectangles each.

Next up was the thought-requiring part of deciding where to place each of the sixteen blocks. After a moderate amount of deliberation I was content with the following layout. Each of the diagonals alternated fabric pattern: orange zig-zag with orange floral, and black floral with gray mini-dot. I spaced the X fabric (same as backing) and the almost solid black fabric away from the center since they both were strong and very graphic. The gray mini-dot also stood out as different yet subtle, so I wanted to feature it near the center.  I also wanted to feature the florals near the center since they are two of my favored prints from the kit. 

I joined the block rows and sashing rows to form the inner portion of the quilt. Yes, the two zig-zag fabrics, orange and black, are adjacent twice, but I could accept that. They are separated by sashing so that softens the proximity. In retrospect I suppose I could have  rotated one of the colors 90° so one ran horizontally and the other ran vertically, but that seemed weird to me even though the box lid from the kit shows the zig-zag as vertical. I would not have had two zig-zag fabrics to begin with, had I not substituted the orange zig-zag for the orange mini-dot fat quarter I cut wrong. That's OK. The Z's are "Zingier". I have run out of design wall space at this stage but that, too, is OK. There will be little decision making beyond this point: all that remains of the assembly is adding a mini-floral-print outer sashing and some gray, then orange, borders.

I spread the quilt-in-progress out on the bed in the adjacent bedroom. The quilt, assembled up through the inner sashings stage, is shown sideways in the following photo (rotated 90° counterclockwise from previous photos, since I took the photo from the side of the bed). My son likes bunnies and Mickey Mouse, hence the bunny tail and Mickey icon pillowcase on the left and the yellow Micky foot on the right. This non-cropped view may not be a professional approach, but the inclusions add a personal touch and allow me to use the space I have available.