Years ago I posted what I was doing with strips of 1" wide fabric and how I was putting it together to make string scrap quilt of 8-1/2" blocks. (See link.) Then about a year later, as I was going through the blocks I had made, I found that some of the blocks I had made were not as wide as they should have been. (See link.) Turned out my 1/4" foot made a generous 1/4" (read, "not a quarter inch") and as I unpicked a good chunk of what I had done and contemplated my plan, I made a slight variation to my original plan. Rather than have squares made up entirely of strips, I'd add some plain black to set them off. Something like this... (These are just laid out on black fabric, but I liked the effect.)
Well, with this layout, I wouldn't need squares of scrap, but rectangles. A little bit of math later, I knew that instead of 16 strips of scraps, I'd have 13 with black strips on two sides to complete the square.
It has now been about 8 years since I started collecting scraps and sewing them together and I finally had the 167 rectangles done to make a large baby and queen size top. Now to add the black to the sides.
With all those scraps and seams, I had noticed that there was lots of stretchiness to the squares, so to help stabilize the final blocks, I chose to cut the black strips so the straight of grain ran lengthwise. This meant I would cut strips that were 8-1/2" from the WOF and then sub-cut into the 1-1/4" strips needed.
I then sewed them onto each side. If the rectangle of scraps felt slightly longer than the black strip, I would ease it in. Or if it felt a tad too small, I would stretch it to fit the black.
It finished to exactly 8-1/2" square. The black strips would finish to 3/4" and the scrap strips would finish to 1/2" strips.
With the stack of blocks all done, I was ready to lay it out. Now if, I was really random, I would have just sewn them together by grabbing any two at a time, but I can't. My randoms have to be a little more thought out so that they still look random, which means I don't want like colors or fabrics to end up lining up or having all of them end up in the same area of the quilt. It's just me.
So, I laid them out and moved them around until I had them how I wanted them. Now, how to keep them in the proper order so I can chain piece them and not have to break my threads after each? I don't have a design wall. The floor plays that role.
I know everyone has their own method, but this is what works best for me, so even if I come back after a long time, I still understand the order. First I stack them up, from left to right, keeping them staggered just a little so that I can tell which way if left and right. As you can see in the picture, both above and below, it is obvious that the block on top goes to the left while the block on the bottom is the farthest right in the stack.
I'm going to now do the same thing from top to bottom. The top most stack will stay a little more towards the top.
Now as I take this stack, I could duplicate exactly how I had the quilt laid out. Even if I turned that stack 90 degrees or 180 degrees, it will be clear which direction things go and can be put together correctly.
Et, voilà. It worked.
Now came the fun of doing the queen size. I didn't have enough room to lay out all the squares at once, so I laid it out a quarter at a time.
I also sewed a small black border on each side and will bind it in black after I get around to quilting it.
With each of my children, I made them a baby quilt when they were born. Then when they turned 8, they got a queen size that matched their baby blanket. This set will be saved for one of my future grandchildren. My current plan is to quilt it once they are on the way because quilt tops are smaller to store than quilts, but that may change if I think of a perfect way to quilt them.
