bkay

I want to make a string quilt. I have a lot of scraps. I have solids left over from bindings, scraps left over from I Spy squares, estate sales - you name it, I have it. However, a lot of it is really bright (I spy quilts). Do you sort them by color? By that do you do put all warm or cool colors? Or do you just put them in a bag and go with what comes out?

I've (kinda, sorta) decided to cut all my scraps on the accuquilt 2.5" strip cutter. If all the scraps were the same width, would it be too boring?

I'm not starting this as my next quilt, but am in the process of organizing and cleaning out my stash and want to deal with the bags of miscellaneous scraps.

bkay

GingerK

I guess it really depends on if you like a 'controlled' scrappy or an 'anything goes' scrappy. When I did mine, it was sort of between those two extremes leaning more towards the anything goes. If I thought the block was getting too dark, I would purposefully throw in a bright. As far as width of strings--it's your quilt. Do as you like.

Tartan

​Find a pattern you like and that will help you decide how to sort them. The Diamonds pattern with black looks great with brights. The Boxes of Strings looks good devidied into lights and darks. Bonnie Hunter’s Spiderweb looks good with brights also.

oksewglad

bkay..I've sorted brights by color ROYGBV each with a zip lock bag. By sorting them in this order you always know where the Yellow fabrics are (between Orange and Green), and you can grab whatever color you want.

Strips all the same size could be boring, but not always. Think of all the patterns that use jelly rolls ( 2 1/2") and they aren't boring!

It's a never ending process to get those scraps under control. One thing I did was cut my smaller than FQ pieces into strips starting from 5" down to 1" (I'm a mini quilter). This adds a new dimension to sorting believe me! Here are couple of my quilts made from 1 1/2" strings. The first one is made with 10-10 1/2"strips in one block. There is no reason why you couldn't use 2 1/2" strips but use 5 strips or cut 6 strips that are 12 1/2" long. My DGD loves this one and claims it's an "I spy" quilt and since you have lots of those fabrics it would be perfect for them. [ATTACH=CONFIG]607516[/ATTACH]
The second quilt is featured here.

My first panto quilt..not as easy as it seems!

This was a very easy quilt to make...I sorted my 1 1/2" strips into brights with a white tone to them, then sewed 1 1/2" strips in a long strip to equal +72"...made 8 of them. Next folded a 2 yard length of white fabric in half selvage to selvage (the short way). Then made 9 cuts parallel to the selvage in varying widths starting at 2 1/2". Then sewed the pieced strips to the white to create the quilt. All fabric was from my stash, as was the backing pieces. There is no reason why you can use wider fabrics and/or fabrics of one color. Who says you need add additional fabric strips...let the pieced strips do all the work. Let your "what if I..." creativity work for you!

Good luck...

zozee

I sort warms from cools because I don't care for them together, in most cases. I think the warms turn a bright thing dull.

For string blocks, 2.5" is pretty wide. You wouldn't get too many strips on a block. A variety of widths is more visually appealing, and of course anything too skinny will be very skinny after seam allowances. That said, I tend to
cut my strips from 1.25 to 2.25" wide. But if you've already cut a lot into 2.5" strips, then by all means find a jelly roll pattern that you like.

One more thing: there's an advantage to cutting various widths--you don't have to worry about matching points.

JJBlaine

For my scrappys, I like to pick one fabric that I use throughout the quilt to tie everything together, like for the sashings, or maybe background fabric. Otherwise, anything goes. I just toss my scraps into a paper bag and use whatever I pull out. 30's next to CWs next to batiks--my only "rule" is to not use the same color next to itself. Sometimes even I think it looks "wrong" as I am stitching individual pieces, but I am almost always happy with the look of the finished product.

However, I recently read a blog article by a scrap quilter who sorts her scraps into two bins. One bin is full of fabrics that go best with whites, the other is fabrics that go better with creams. Fabrics that could go either way are tossed into whatever bin has less scraps in it. She swore that this made her scrap quilts blend nicely.

JustAbitCrazy

I don't make scrappies, but if they are all the same width you'd have a gazillion points to match. I'd vary the widths, for sure.

Macybaby

I like to make a lot of controlled scrappy - where there is a pattern formed by the use of colors. most often it's Light/dark, and sometimes it's color/neutral. I did one that used light, dark, yellow and red.

Once I have them sorted that way, I pretty much grab what is next. Though I'll try not to put the same color right next to itself if I catch it. Though once it's sewn, I don't worry about it, and don't give it a lot of concern when sewing blocks together.

Most of the scrappies I make use 1.5" strips in some arrangement.

bkay

This is the type of string quilt I had in mind. With my tunnel vision, I forgot there were tons of different iterations of string quilts. I also never thought of having to match points if I cut the strings all the same size.

I like the idea of sorting by "going with" cream, white or either.

Thanks, now I can get into cleaning up those three bags of scraps.

bkay

Iceblossom

I really liked the quilt posted in this thread from here:

https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...t-t302608.html

Basically the sort of strings you like but made into pinwheels... at least that's what I'm thinking about my narrow strips.