Farmers Wife Sampler progress

 We are up to 60 blocks completed for our Farmers Wife Sampler challenge.  Seeing that little stack growing is very exciting for me.  I know that I wouldn't have gotten this far if not for making them along with a friend each week. There are 51 left to make for the complete quilt, so with 2 per week were still have about 6 months to go.

This little basket is just the right size to hold my blocks, the book, and the envelope full of templates.  I don't always use the templates themselves unless the shape is unusual like in the Honeycomb block from this week.  If it's a triangle, square or rectangle I just measure the template and rotary cut like with any other block piece.  The book never gives any measurement except saying the finished blocks are all 6.5" square.  Even the sashing strips have a template - for a 1.5" by 6.5" strip.  Isn't that funny?

And speaking of sashing, notice on the book cover the sashing is a dark brown with a cream cornerstone.  You can't see it, but the setting triangles along the edges are also cream.  I was digging into my "brown" drawer in the stash to see if I had anything similar to that dark brown.  This medium brown solid was in the drawer, and there are over 3 yards of it.  

What do you think?  My first impression is that it is too light and doesn't have a good contrast with some of the fabrics in the blocks.  Plus it's kind of a "poop brown" which isn't a color I would normally buy, so I'm not even sure what it was even purchased for.  

I may pull a darker brown just to see if the contrast works better, even if I don't have enough of it to actually use.  I've even considered using black.  Anyone have some feedback for me?