Setting 120+ Blocks

I love to make quilts all kinds of quilts. My friends and I decided to make each other big '0' birthday quilts. So now the question becomes what to do with 120+ 6" nine patch (or almost nine patch) blocks made with 30's fabrics. I know that not every sewing machine pieces with the same 1/4" so I had to think about how best to set the blocks in a pleasing way, and not make it to huge to easily machine quilt.

First I decided to use blue as the accent color. Increasing the size of every block to insure that they could easily be trimmed to the same 8" was my next decision. I planned to add simple sashing to some, to others I added triangles to set them on point. I needed a way to unify the other, mostly star, blocks so I made a few more. This worked well for the center of the quilt but used only 63 blocks!

A narrow pink sash to divide the center from the border and I was all ready to add the border. I know I prefer borders to be about the same size as the blocks. I added blue or white sash to every block placing the whites next to the quilt and the blues on the outside. Believe or not, there were still a few blocks left over ... they became the label!