I have selected the sashing and cornerstones for the first two rows of the Violet section. In the photo above those rows appear assembled next to the final row of the upper left section of the quilt.

I am generally pleased with the way these rows have turned out, but there is one thing that I would do over if it were not such an onerous task. The #27 Darting Birds block is composed of Cerise and Berry. The block is within the 2nd column of the quilt which means that it falls in an area that is flanked by the sashing colors of the four blocks adjacent to it in the 1st and 3rd columns. In the case of this block that space is flanked on two sides by blocks surrounded by the color Cerise. This was part of my unifying sashing plan, and I have no intention of changing that.

When I came up with my sashing scheme I committed myself to those Cerise sashing pieces. It would have been easy enough to avoid the use of Cerise in the block that would fall between them in the 2nd column, but I was not thinking of that when I chose colors for it. I was only thinking of how the colors would play with the nearby blocks themselves.

Previously I had deliberately surrounded a block with sashing the same color as some of the pieces that touched the border. See #7 Birds in the Air above with Rich Red triangles melting into a Rich Red sashing. I think the difference in my perception may be that this block was in an odd numbered column, so the sashing was the same on all four sides, not just two.

What I’ve learned here is that my commitment to specific sashing colors carries a responsibility to consider how those choices should effect the selection of colors for the construction of blocks adjacent to those sashing pieces.

If I had it to do over I would have selected a color other than Cerise to be the lighter portion of the #27 block. I had many options at my disposal as I had more Violet colors than any other group. I would have even redone the block if I had thought about this before sashing pieces were joined on both sides of the block in the row.

In retrospect though, the result is not as disturbing as I thought it would be, and I am going to resist my urge toward perfectionism, and thus avoid adding to the pile of reject blocks for this quilt which will some day become embellishment for a fine skirt, or perhaps a modern alternate grid quilt.