WIP Wed: City Sampler and Black and White Quilt

Besides a few more City Sampler blocks, I've also been trying to finish up my June goal on A Lovely Year of Finishes.  My friend Shanna even let me swap some big spools of auriful thread for some of her Kona white, but after I made a few dozen sashing strips for the black and white swap quilt, I decided that it was still too busy.

I knew I wanted something tame, so started digging through my solid fabric stash, and found some gray.  I think this works much better as sashing. I also made about a dozen new blocks from my own stash to replace some of the swap blocks that either just clashed entirely with the whole quilt, were made with browns or colored fabric on the borders (a no no), or were just too far from my personal style. I feel a bit bad about doing this, but if I'm going to spend the time making it into a quilt, I want it to like it.

Here's another sashing option.  I've also toyed with the idea of somehow throwing out the traditional layout to make it more modern as well.  What do you think?

This quilt has been really frustrating for me, but also challenging.  I almost always learn the most when I step outside of my comfort zone, and that certainly is the case with this quilt!