Sashing for Leaf quilt

I haven't forgotten the leaf quilt, just been busy. I have most of the sashing and border cut. If I were to guess how many pairs of pants were needed for this quilt.....Takes several, how's that?

Really.... I got the final border out of 1 pair of pants and a skirt. With cutting as much of the 3.5 inch sashing as I could get out of the leftovers...190 inches with a needed 528 inches meant another pair for the sashing. That's 3 pair of black pants for the settings. To make the block blackgrounds I needed 2 pr. of pants (actually I had one skirt and 1 pr of pants) Each of the color parts came from a different piece of clothing, although I could have gotten 8 blocks from each pr. of pants, I chose to use many different ones. (Here size matters; a large man's pair of pants will be much more fabric than a woman's size 5, and they shrink very differently.)So my sum-up is very loose, several times I had to wait until I found more fabric. Then it needed picked apart  (it will shrink funny at seams and hems), pressed, washed once or twice, pressed.

• background 2 pr. pants
• leaves 2 pr. of pants
• sashing and border 3 pr. of pants
• inner border, scraps of leaves fabric

That's 7 pr of pants! Of course I didn't figure this out before I started. I didn't exactly use all pants; one of my oranges was from a tan/brown yardage and I found a long pleated wool skirt that I used for some of the border/sashing. There will be random seams in the sashing since I'm using some shorter pieces of wool from the pants I cut the border out of.


I'm learning a few things working with wool.

•  I need to use more pins and there is
•  no finger pressing. 
•  I kept the iron on and pressed each seam open to cut down on the bulk.
•  I did not care if the fabrics were of different weights, so some of them were bulkier than others. 
• Check for moth holes! I found a tiny one after cutting out the leaf... :(
• Take apart before washing
• Jackets are a pain to use, so much interfacing that you don't get much usable fabric...You can pull some of the interfacing off but it's more work than pants or skirts.I didn't use any jackets in the making of this quilt. But I have 4 hanging in the closet for the next one! Hey at $0.99 they will be worth it, I hope. ( I am waiting for my husband to try them on, if they fit he'll wear them this winter.)

My inspiration was a couple of utility quilts that I've seen. One was very like what I imagine a wagga is (slang to refer to an Australian wool utility quilt). One of my customers showed it to me, very heavy, rectangles of wool on the front and back. I wish I'd taken photographs of it  Very dark random pieces. Then I have a pin;

of this wool Welsh quilt but the pin goes nowhere so I don't know where I got it. and a google search does not bring it up. This quilt actually got me started ...then the season I was in dictated leaves....Halloween dictated orange leaves....I had lots of black fabric or so I thought....So I will continue. I am now wondering what to put on the back...I know it won't be wool, I'd like to be able to pick this quilt up!  I'd love suggestions....
Then there are the scraps! What to do? What to do? I have a fun little project (that keeps getting bigger) that I started. You may have to wait until NEXT September to see it though, Oh dear I just thought of a Christmas one to do.....