What's In A Box of Strings?

In Cathy's world strings are a natural occurrence. I don't cut into yardage to make strings. If I cut yardage I call those strips. Strings come from quilt back trimmings, or wonky yardage ends or yardage ends that are usually less than 1.5 inches. I keep selvages separate from strings but I do consider selvages strings.

I keep a box for strings under my cutting table. When it gets full I start another one. Well, I had several boxes of strings so decided to put all of them except for some light ones in one big box. The box height is 16 inches, the length is 19 inches and the width is 13 inches. 

The strings are fluffed up and not smashed down and the box is FULL. I was not going to deal with the strings until next year but that box sure takes up a lot of space so I started on them this year instead. 

Inside that box there is also a bag of black strings I separated out when I made Let's Party blocks last year. 

I am going to keep novelties in a separate bag for a string quilt for kids.

I have already separated out dark strings from the big box and I made a String Star top a few days ago. 

I blogged at the beginning of the month about making that String Star as well as a Kaleidoscope Quilt.

Now in addition to the Kaleidoscope Quilt I will make another Crossed Quilt. 

The Kaleidoscope Quilt will be made of 10 inch blocks with wedges cut with a Kaleidoscope ruler. I would like 48 blocks. That means I need 192 string wedges and 192 wedges of the red fabric I am using as the background.  

The Crossed Quilt takes 10 x5 pieces and 6 x 5 string pieces -- 48 of each for 48 blocks. 

So I got started on both quilts at the same time. I grabbed a bunch of strings...

...to make string fabric. I separated out the novelties and the really skinny strings went into the gardening bag to use as garden ties.  I first cut strings 22 inches long -- that will give me made fabric for cutting 10 inch pieces for Crossed as well as two 5.5 inch strips to use to cut wedges for the Kaleidoscope quilt.  No sense in sorting strings again and again...might as well use all of the strip if I can. 

After I cut 22 inch lengths from the strings if I could I cut...

...12 inch pieces which when sewn together into a big piece of fabric can be subcut into 6 inch strip for Crossed Quilt as well as a 5.5 inch strip for Kaleidoscope wedges.  And then, guess what! ...there were still some length left on some of those long strings so I cut 5 inch lengths for a string quilt I saw at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

So on and on it went...sort and cut...

...sort and cut...

....sort nd cut...

...until I had several stacks of different lengths of strings. 

I didn't cut the final round for Crazy Mom strings at 5 inches  because I was not sure if I would need those for the Crossed or Kaleidoscope Quilts so I will cut those later after I have all the pieces I need for Crossed and Kaleidoscope Quilts. 

I sewed together all of the 22 inch lengths of strings along the long edge until I had several long lengths of fabric. One was 56 inches long and the other was 76 inches long. 

I ironed all seams in one direction then trimmed up one edge and cut off a 10 inch strip and then two 5.5 inch strips. 

I then cut the 10 inch piece into 5 inch width pieces for the Crossed Quilt. I ended up with 32 - 5 x 10 inch pieces for the Crossed Quilt and need 48 pieces. 

I used a Kaleidoscope ruler and cut wedges from the 5.5 inch pieces. 

I ended up with 112 wedges and need 192. 

Then I sewed the 12 inch lengths of strings together for one big piece of fabric and then 

...trimmed that piece of fabric off and cut off a 6 inch strip and a 5.5 inch strip. The six inch strip was subcut into 5 inch widths for the Crossed Quilt and I ended up with 30 out of the target of 48 pieces for Crossed. 

I cut more wedges from that 5.5 inch piece that came off the 12 inch piece. I ended up with a total of 178 wedges. Only 14 more to go!

So then I cut 6 inch lengths of strings and made a width of fabric I thought should be enough for 14 more wedges. I ironed, trimmed it up, then cut wedges. 

I now have more than enough string wedges for my Kaleidoscope Quilt. Next I will cut the background red wedges and I'm thinking I will use blue and yellow scraps for the Kaleidoscope block corners. 

After that I finished up 16 more 10 x 5 pieces for the Crossed Quilt so I don't need any more of those. 

Now I only need 18 more 5 x 6 inch pieces for Crossed and I will have all the strings I need for the Kaleidoscope Quilt and the Crossed Quilt.   Then I will probably make the String Quilt with novelties because that will take some longer strings. After that I will probably finish cutting and making all the pieces I need for Crazy Mom string quilt. Then I wonder what will be left in that box.