HI! I'm Myra from Busy Hands Quilts. In an effort to use more of the stash in 2016, I'm participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016. I'm using a ton of 1930s 1.25" strips which I purchased off eBay over ten years ago. I remember vividly that we were building our house when I bought ten pint size bags stuffed with 1930s strips. They represent a tiny drop in the amount of fabric I bought that year due to stress. These fabrics could potentially be 20-30 years old depending on how long the person before me had them; I've no way of really knowing.
January's blocks are blue, and there is lots of variety among the strips which is perfect for a string quilt. My goal is to not use the same fabric twice in a block. I'll end up with a rainbow of blocks by year's end, and I'll probably make transition blocks that are half of two colors to blend the movement between colors in the quilt. I'm envisioning a barn raising pattern at this point. I'm using 10" foundation paper with a thin layer of glue stick to hold the middle string in place, leftovers from this custom Thimbleberries string quilt I made in 2013.
I'm aiming for a large bed quilt 95" square for my bed. We turned off the heater on our waterbed last spring and didn't notice a difference until this fall/winter when we've found we need more blankets than ever before. The current count is 5, so I should use wool batting in this quilt!
After making 7 blocks this afternoon, I realize the bags of strips will make far more blocks than I need for my quilt. I'm even wondering if I could make the whole bed quilt from blue alone since the 7 blocks didn't make a dent in the blue pile! I'll make as many as I have time for each month and make a second {or third or fourth} quilt with the extra blocks.
