Friday, October 23, 2026

Matching seams across sashing

In a perfect world, piecing would be mathematically perfect every time, so that blocks and sashing in different rows always line up perfectly, even when there's sashing between rows.  My world is not perfect, and I have to make a little more effort to make sure things line up.

Small quilt top composed of 6 blue four-patch blocks laid out in a 3 x 2 steeing with grey sashing. Red lines overlaidon the photo highlight the alignment of the vertical sashing.
Red lines show alignment of the vertical sashing strips

The trick is to mark the sashing in the seam allowance, then match up seams with the marks.  Let's take a closer look.

Here are two vertically sashed rows of four-patch block.  The horizontal sashing between the rows is already sewn to one of the rows, ready to sew to the other row to complete the sashing.  Here's how to make the vertical sashing in the top row line up with the vertical sashing in the bottom row. 

2 rows of 3 blue 4-patch blocks. There is grey sashing between the blocks on each row, and horizontal sashing betweween the rows is sewn to the bottom row only, leaving a gap between the rows.


Step 1:  Make reference marks in the seam allowance of the horizontal sashing.

On the part with horizontal sashing already attached, line up the straight edge of a ruler with one side of the vertical sashing, making sure the ruler is square with the horizontal.  Make a little mark right on the edge of the sashing where it will be hidden in the seam allowance. 

Quilting ruler laid over some blue and grey patchwork, lining up with the gray vertical sashing. A blue marking pen is making a mark at the top of the horizontal sashing strip.

Closeup of a portion of two halves of a grey and blue quilt top. The horizontal sashing attached to the bottom piece is marked with blue tic marks lilned up with the sides of teh vertical sashing strips

Repeat that for every side of every vertical sashing strip.

Step 2:  When setting the two rows together, right sides together, to sew the sashing to the top row, line up and pin every sashing seam on the top with the corresponding mark on the horizontal sashing. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the pinned pieces, but I did photograph the marks and the stitching being lined up.

A pice of patchwork, wrong side up, being positioned to match the stitching lines with markings on another piece of right-side-up patchwork


Step 3:  Head to the sewing machine and sew with a 1/4" seam.

Step 4:  Press towards the sashing.  If you made your marks small enough, they are hidden in the seam allowance.

Small quilt top composed of 6 blue four-patch blocks laid out in a 3 x 2 steeing with grey sashing.

There you have it!  You have well-aligned sashing to help your piecing look crisp and tidy!

Happy sewing,
Joanne


The fabrics I used in this tutorial are scraps from my City Line QAL quilt.  White Owl Textiles generously contributed the fabrics for that quilt.  These scraps are from their Fundamentals collections Peppercorn and Stucco.
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