How to cut quilt sashing

Ready to take your quilt to the next level with sashing strips? Sashing strips are the fabric pieces that separate your quilt blocks, adding structure and framing each design to create a more organized look. In this guide, I’ll show you how to easily cut perfect sashing strips with my favorite time-saving tool!

I have never been a big fan of sashing strips, but when I was writing my Churn Butter Cookie Quilt pattern, I felt the sashing strips and cornerstones (or corner sashing squares) helped the blocks stand out from each other, instead of all of the points of the churn dashes meeting together. You have so many options when choosing your sashing – you can match your background color, choose a color to stand out, or add it in as an accent color! No matter which you choose, first things first…let’s master how to cut our quilt sashing with efficiency and ease!

I am currently working on a Heather Ross by Windham Fabric baby quilt version of the Churn Butter Cookie Quilt and I picked this adorable Heather Ross frog fabric for my sashing and background. It is definitely adding a whimsical touch to this design!

Let’s get cut our sashing strips!

1. Instructions in the Churn Butter Cookie Quilt pattern for cutting sashing strips indicate that our first step is to cut a 15.5″ x WOF of fabric strip.
2. Don’t forget, MEASURE TWICE and CUT ONCE!
3. I like to straighten up the edges of my fabric after cutting off the selvage ends. Then I rotate the fabric because it’s easier for me to see and cut. Ultimately, you want to layout your fabric on your cutting table and measure to 15.5″. Cut!
4. You now have a section of fabric that is 15.5″ x WOF.
5. Time to subcut…
6. You may want to turn the fabric again to make the next cuts…but fair warning, you have to be careful that your fabric doesn’t shift or move. If it does, simply line your cut lines again and straighten everything out!
7. You’ve already cut your fabric for the first measurement (15.5″) and we now we need to make the individual subcuts for the sashing strips.
8. We want our sashing strips to be 2.5″ wide.
9. I absolutely LOVE my Stripology XL ruler. I hesitated buying this ruler because the price, let’s face it, the price is a bit steep for a specific use ruler, but it is literally one of the tools in my sewing room that makes my life SO much easier! I use it for 2.5″ squares, sashing strips and my favorite use…BINDING STRIPS! More on the Striplogy ruler coming soon.
10. Because of the length of my fabric, to cut all of my strips at one time, I need to fold my fabric in half.
11. Once again, carefully line up your cut edges making sure everything is straight and lined up.
12. Lay the ruler straight down onto the fabric. Make sure the fabric hasn’t shifted and line up the horizontal and vertical lines on the ruler with your fabric edges.
13. One great feature on the Stripology XL ruler are these nifty shapes to help you keep track of where you need to cut! For example, every 2.5″ mark is marked with a small square. So instead of worrying about the numbers or keeping track of where to cut, just follow the squares! In no time, I have squared up the left side, made all of my 2.5″ strip cuts and cut off the excess on the right side.
14. Carefully lift your ruler up and just like that, you have beautiful 2.5″ x 15.5″ sashing strips!

My favorite tools for this project:

Stripology XL Ruler

Baby Lock Sewing Machine (I sew on a Baby Lock Jazz II and a Ballad)

Thread-I use Aurifil 50 wt for all of my piecing

Mechanical pencil/fabric marking pen, i.e. Frixon Pens or Sewline Erasable Pens

Scissors or rotary cutter

Cutting mat – I like using a rotating cutting mat

Straight pins – I like ultra-fine Magic Pins or Clover extra-fine patchwork pins

Clover Wonder Clips

Seam ripper

Oliso Mini-Project Iron

Wool pressing mat

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