Blue Ice Laughing Out Loud

 

in 2009 I made this quilt, Laughing Out Loud. It is a takeoff of the "Reading in Bed" quilt in Freddy Moran & Gwen Marston's book, Collaborative Quilting. 

It was the first quilt I ever made with sashing and cornerstones, and it taught me something. If one fabric is used for the sashing, and if it is used well, the blocks appear to be floating above them.

When I started laying out the blocks for the Blue Ice quilt, I saw the two darkest fabrics wouldn't work the way I wanted, so I decided to use them as the spacers between the blocks, but when I stepped back, the dark solid looking fabric looked dead. Notice them around the block with the dragonfly in the center, above. Notice how the other spacer blocks with the deep space "stars" in them, appear lively by contrast, and they seem to connect to each other. 

I decided to use only that fabric for the spacers, but I didn't have enough. So I have placed an order for more of that fabric. As long as I was at it, I ordered the backing fabric, and something I might use for the binding.