Searching for ideas
 

I was travelling with DH in Vermont, and we drove by a place that said Vermont Flannel Company. I made him turn back to see what it was. They make plaid flannel shirts, etc. out of a very high quality flannel. I asked if they sell scraps and they said yes; $5 for 10 lbs. DH is asking how we will fit a 10 lb bag of flannel in our suitcase (because we were flying home), and when I suggested that I get an extra bag for a quilting buddy he suggested not, but at least agreed to the one bag. So here I am with all the flannel plaid, and I've started to make it into blocks--because I didn't just want to make a plain flannel quilt, and the scraps were lined up so that I could sort of stack and whack them. I love this flannel--it's so soft and forgiving, and they said in the store that it doesn't shrink--maybe it was preshrunk. Anyway, I started to make blocks. You can see some of them in the photo. I'm making 3 1/2", 6 1/2" and 9 1/2" blocks, so they can be mixed and matched into 12" blocks. I will have about 1 million of them when I'm done. In many colors. There are orange plaids, and purple (see picture) and green and red, etc. etc. I think I might get quite a few quilts out of this, but I have no idea how to arrange the blocks. Do you have any suggestions?

The blocks remind me of string quilts, which I greatly admire. There is a quilter who has devoted much of her time to making donation quilts and to posting the patterns to them. Her site is MaryQuilts.com, and her name is Mary Johnson. I think you could get ideas from her free patterns. I think you're onto something special here. Beautiful colors.

Go to www.quilterscache.com and look through to find a pattern for a plaid quilt block. It's on my to do list. This material would be perfect. You need several plaids for the block. Good luck with all you do with this great find.

Yes, I was thinking of using black flannel for sashing. The flying geese idea is something to think about. I guess I'll put it into EQ7 and see how it looks. Thanks!

Which Vermont Flannel Company was this? I see a lot of them but they are probably stores. I am just across Lake Champlain from Burlington when I am in Upstate NY. I am wondering if one of them is the factory and may be the only one with scraps. I would hate to go and be disappointed!

I got some really good ideas from this site. I guess I'd better get to work! :-)

Wow! So many ideas. My mind is in overdrive now.

We drove up Lake Champlain on the Vermont side, and then down on the NY side. This store was on the road on the Vermont side. I looked at their website now, but couldn't really tell which store it was, however there is a form to contact them to ask at http://vermontflannel.com/contact-us.html So they could tell you which store to go to. It was a factory store as well as an outlet. It's such nice fabric!

That was a good buy, congrats on finding that and getting it home!