WOW ladies - all those blocks are wonderful!!!! bookworm - recognize some of those winter exchange DJ blocks!! Been thinking about using some of those as well [42 I think???] Spartan - about the sashing - the recommended in the original is 1/2" finished and although some people are making it wider, the real advantage to making it 1/2" when you are QAYG is that you needn't add any additional batting behind the sashing. The 1/4" seam you take from the blocks fill in the quilt sandwich - quilt top blocks, batting [and optional back at this point] - perfectly butting the blocks together to fill in the 1/2"
BTW your quilting is awesome!!! adds so much to the block