Red and White Quilt from Kansas City Star

The Kansas City Star published patterns, a block a month, in 2013 for this quilt called "Rubies, Diamonds, and Garnets, Too..." designed by Bernadette Kent of Calgary, Alberta.  This is my second attempt at piecing, so I am happy with the outcome. Those 36 sashing strips took me weeks to do as there are 864 half triangle pieces to cut, sew two together, trim, and then sew in a strip. If I had known at the outset how time consuming those would be, I probably would not have started it. But they do add a lot to the overall look. The blocks were pretty quick to piece together; even the center star was not too bad.

Almost all of the white fabrics are from blouses from Salvation Army on their 49 cent day. The red checks and plaids are from shirts. The polka dot was a skirt. The rest of the fabrics had to be bought at a fabric store since it was hard to find red on red and red on white prints. This block to the right was from a bought fabric that had the illustrated sewing stitches fussy cut (cutting out a motif to be centered).

The center block was not what was originally published in the paper. They had to print a retraction for some reason and offered a download for this star.

If anyone wants these instructions I cut from The Star, I will be happy to mail it all to the first person I hear from.

Now I have to figure out how to quilt this 68" square. This will be my first quilting attempt, and I don't want to do it by hand. Perhaps I will practice free motion quilting and try doing that.  Those four white corners of the center block should get a special treatment. Any ideas?