A while back, I decided to try and use up my collection of commercial plaid and solid cottons, madras and homespuns. These fabrics have been languishing in a drawer for 5 or 6 years and I really wanted the space for something else.
I sorted all my plaids and solids into piles of warm and cool colors and cut them into random sized strips - ranging in size from 1" to 2 1/2" wide. I used a muslin foundation cut to 8" square. I started by sewing a warm and cool strip together across the diagonal. These two were pressed open and then I added more strips of the respective color family to each side until the foundation was covered. After trimming, I played around with the squares on the design wall until I was happy with the arrangement. I was able to scrounge enough remaining scraps to make the border. Yipee! I pretty much finished off that group of fabrics!
The backing was a good quality cotton sheet hand dyed to coordinate with the colors on the front of the quilt.
I made this quilt as a graduation gift for a nephew.
After it was finished - I decided I would like to keep it, and have rationalized my decision with the fact that said nephew is too tall for this one (he really would not be able to cover up with it!)
I hope you will forgive the quality of the photos! It is tough to get good light this time of year!
I love making this kind of string quilt, only I usually use whatever I've tossed in my "string" drawer - not nearly as organized as your effort! This has turned out really well. I too have a collection of plaids (mostly Roberta Horton plaids and stripes that I was very addicted to buying) and at one time thought I would put them in a fan quilt per a quilt I saw in Fons & Porter magazine. Now when I look at that Fons & Porter pattern, I wonder whatever made me think that was a good idea. Sometimes our style or fashion sense just changes I guess. So I have no idea how I might use up my stash of plaids, but at least you are getting me thinking about it again.
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