2-1/2" Saga ~ The 'Rona Series

Dan here ~ 

This is the third part of the Saga of the 2-1/2" squares and the 'Rona series.  Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here.

The design process for 'Rona 2 or the fourth quilt in the 2-1/2” Saga began with still lots of nine-patch units in the pile. You guessed it, 'Rona 2 naturally centered around the nine-patch. 

Again, it is the sashing strips and cornerstones that pull the quilt together and adds pizazz to the project. 

For the sashing units this time I went with a larger scale sashing strip. Since my nine-patches are 6” finished, I went with a 3” finished sashing block. I then popped 1-1/4" off all four corners (much like a snowball block) and replaced them with half of a 2-1/2" square, again using more scraps. The cornerstones that I used for most of the sashing were scrappy four-patch units. I changed that up with a pop of red and yellow square in a square blocks to add more interest.
 

Sashing

This quilt received a border ~ I decided to do a piano key border. I like them. They are a bit of a pain getting the math correct but worth it when it comes out right. The piano keys came from the 2-1/2” x 5” scrap bin and were trimmed from there as necessary.

Dan & 'Rona 2

Carol quilted this with a digitized pattern called Chantilly.

On 'Rona 3, I decided to loose the nine-patch blocks and came up with something different.  I decided that some four-patch blocks were in order. So off I went to making 3” finished four patch units. Naturally my blocks were over sized and I trimmed with my four-patch square up tool to get them precisely the 3-1/2” size I needed to work with. A nine-patch block was created with the four-patch units in the four corners, a common red in the center and a common background fabric 

Do you see the nine-patch?

I then took the common background fabric and popped the 2 corners closest to the red center unit and replaced them with the same red as the center. This gave me a sorta eight pointed star in the center of the block. For the sashing strips and cornerstones (I think you are figuring out that I like sashing strips and cornerstones) I used a four-patch unit sandwiched between 2 background squares. 

Sashing

The background squares were popped as well only this time scrap was used as replacement and a four-patch unit was used as cornerstone. This gave me the same basic look as in the block, only in the block, the “star” was always the same, in the sashing they are scrappy. 

Can you tell which is the block and which is the sashing?

I followed the border concept of 'Rona 2 and again used a piano key border.  Carol quilted this with a digitized pattern called Clamshell Zig Zag.

If you think you are confused now, how do you think I feel? I'm currently working on 'Rona 7, so stay tuned for 'Ronas 4 and 5 coming up next. We love to hear questions and comments.