A couple of months ago my daughter asked me to make a quilt for my 3 yr old grandson. She picked the pattern (a picture downloaded from the internet) and the colors. I stewed over placement of the stripes for quite awhile and finally came up with one I feel comfortable with. She wanted to use the multi-stripe as the focal fabric so I made those strips wider and used it more often. I now have the strips sewn end to end and am ready to start sewing them together. However, I have a couple of questions I’m puzzling over:
1) My fabric varies in width from 38” (the solid red which I think probably shrank a lot) to 44”. Should I cut each strip to the correct width prior to sewing them together, or should I sew them all together with one edge lined up then cut off the excess on the other end?
2) Also, I plan to hand quilt this and was thinking of doing a stitch in the ditch along the stitching lines to separate each color. Would this be enough to keep the batting from shifting? The widest strip is 6”.

Thank you for your help!

I cut my strip quilts after I sew them. They were quilted on longarm, but i would think that 6 inches is close enough. Should give information on batting package.

it's a very attractive quilt. I like it! As for the 3rd question, how far apart you quilt depends on what the batting calls for. I can't help you with the rest!

my rule is don't cut until you need to. why do unnecessary cutting especially when strips are not the same length.
Quilt as far apart as you believe it is needed. Don't pay attentil to what the batting package says. It may say 6" but for stability you may feel it should be 3". Also, since the quilt will be lovingly abused, it might need more quilting.

I cut the selvage off of one end and then when all the rows are sewed together, I fold it in half or quarters and even it up. Easy peasy...

Some battings need to be quilted no further than 2" apart; others are fine with 10" apart. That information should have come with the batting when you purchased it.

Most people do not hand quilt in the ditch because it does not show off the hand quilting.

the batting dictates how close you have to quilt, it will tell you anywhere from every 2" up to 12" apart; it is important that you follow these guidelines. More is ok, less is not. and if you have a batting that says quilt every 8-10" it is ok to follow that 6" strip but remember that the quilting has to be in both directions; you can not just run a straight quilting line down a strip and call it good you have to cross it too every 6" or what ever the batting dictates. if following the 6" sample it means no matter what direction there is quilting every 6" on the top.
a large loopy meandering across this quilt would look really good, maybe with some stars here & there

OK, that's what I needed to know. Thanks for explaining. Maybe I'll make some stars in the wider strips, or do a diagonal line across. Thanks for explaining.