Tutorial for Split Striped Sashing

 I had seen a quilt with alternating light and dark horizontal stripes of sashing.  It wasn't a Tula Pink City Sampler, but it had that feel, so I pinned it until I was ready to set my own quilt.  To do something similar, you will need two shades of setting fabric.  I chose dark and light grey from Connecting Threads.  The lighter shade is called parchment, and I think the darker one is silver.

 From those, start with strips that are 3 inches wide and sub cut these into 3.5 inch rectangles.  You will need 90 of each color.  Sew them together on the short sides to make 90 sashing strips that are 3 inches by 6.5 inches.

 The key to the split stripe effect is that the sashing strips alternate with each row.  The top row has the light part facing down, the second row has the light part facing up.  After you put a light row on the horizontal, it looks like the blocks are floating in the middle of a white stripe.  The easiest way to do this is to think of the rows as odd and even.  Odd rows have light down, even rows have light up.

The horizontal sashing strips are also 3 inches wide.  To get them long enough, you will need to sew two strips together.  Measure the length of your rows after the vertical sashing strips are sewn in between.  The math says they should be 83 inches long at this point.  I went with the math, because with sampler blocks, there can be minor size variations.  The most important part is that all of the sashing strips need to be the same length.  It is a bit tedious to sew so many long strips, a bit like a quilt with 8 borders really, but sometimes tedious is worth it.

The final borders were easier for the top and bottom than for the sides.  These are slightly wider than the inner sashing, so cut your strips 4.5 inches.  Sew two strips together and trim to 83 inches.  Do this for the the top and the bottom of the quilt.  

All that remains are the two side borders.  The middle sashing strip is now 2.5 inches finished.  Each block is 6 inches finished, and you are spanning half of two blocks.  So, 6 inches plus 2.5 plus .5 for seam allowances should mean 9 inch strips. The top and bottom are  just 7.25 inches because they only span half of one block plus the bottom border.  Sew the strips together with alternating light and dark and lay them out to make sure everything lines up just right before you pin and sew.