Getting to the Bottom of Those Leftover Strips Maybe!

Well, it is done.  If you haven't figured it out, it is just 1 1/2 inch strips sewn together (dark and white) and then cut into 2 1/2 inch segments.  I then sewed them into groups of 4.  This got old and boring fast, so I set them on point and put quarter square triangles to finish off the rows.  

As I had barely scratched the surface of the box with all the leftover 1 1/2 inch strips, I went to my Pinterest file of "someday maybe I will do simple baby quilts".  I found this pattern on it and I should really explain how I ended up doing it as it was not as obvious as it seems!!  The first stripey square that I did, I joined 8 strips together alternating the dark and light and then cut out a square on the diagonal.  This was really impossible and used up a lot of fabric.  Then I decided that I would just sew the strips into groups of 4 and cut 45/45/90 degree triangles out.  This was very easy.  I then sewed the two triangles together to make the squares.  The Pinterest pattern just had a 5 by 5 arrangement which didn't appeal to my need for symmetry!  So I added an additional column of the blue.

It wasn't quite large enough for the neonatal quilts so I then added some borders.

So here it is finished!

I enjoyed this quilt so I still had lots of the pairs sewn and started a new one.  I am now getting to the point where my fabric hoard down here has no blues left!!  The strip box is certainly a bit leaner as well with only small bits left.

Here is the second one finished.  The fabric around the outside is one of my favorites and I used to have about six yards but think I am down to about three yards now.  It is one of the few that I still enjoy using.  

Years ago, I took lots and lots of half yards and quarter yards of 

fabric I had had for years and just started cutting it into random strip sizes (although I had bags of strips left over from other projects as well).  I then just sewed these together making "fabric".  I used this fabric to make two king sized bed quilts.

This was the first I made.  I started by cutting large squares out of the manufactured fabric and then cutting them into quarter square triangles.  This is what I did with the first set of triangles (the top and bottom of the square).

And this is what I did with the side by side squares and of course strips from the fabric.  I used hand dyed gradations of yellow to finish this off.  It was originally going to be two twin sized quilts but I needed king sized quilts more for the beach house

I still had a 64 x 45 piece of this fabric left over (of course) and that is the genesis of this next quilt.  Another Pinterest quilt caught my attention so I have adapted it to my use and think I have just enough for two small quilts (baby, neonatal, comfort or lap robe) of 42 x 42.  I cut 4 1/2 inch strips from the fabric and will edge it with a one inch wide border around each strip and then fill in the center with the four patches set on point.  Hopefully that will be the end of my 1 1/2 inch strips -- although I have a feeling the answer will be no.

So here is the newest beginning of another of these quilts with just the strips cut and laid out at this point.