I knew a woman who made all her husband's shirts and he likes the soft cotton plaids. As with in quilting, when making clothes, there are lots of scraps left over. Maybe even more so with clothing, as the parts are generally not straight or cut from the width of fabric, but instead arranged in a certain direction along the grain, etc.
This friend from my old neighbourhood, was also a quilter, so she had a plan for all the scraps. Part of her plan was to cut the leftovers into strips of 1 1/2" and some into 2" strips. Like most of us quilters, we plan lots of quilts and save lots of scraps to make them. We get into a habit of saving them, that over time we save enough to make several quilts.... I am sure you get the idea.
Needless to say, now that she was in her 80's, she had come to the realization that she is buried in fabrics, kits and scraps of all the quilts she wanted to make along her quilting life span. Many of us underestimate the amount of time needed to make everything we want to make, myself included. We want to make it all. So, a while back, she decided to be realistic and started finishing her kits that she had started. Some of them were considered dated, but she still liked them and wanted to make them.
A bit later on, she got real with all the rest of the stuff she had and started getting rid of her scraps, fabrics she was no longer loving, and disassembled those kits that she truly didn't like, to work on those she did like. It was a slow process, but she kept plugging away, and eventually she started clearing space. One drawer here, one shelf there, which kept her motivated to continue onward. When she finished a project, she would store it in the spare bedroom, so those drawers started to fill up, but at least now they were finished objects, instead of scraps and/or fabric.
This friend started distributing her scraps amongst friends, and she gave me her stings that she was collecting from the fabric she would make her husband's shirts from. With the strings, I made this weave string quilt using an accent of black to emphases the weaving in and out. This quilt measures approximately 54' x 70" and I still have a large amount of strings leftover, plus some larger pieces that came with the strings.
So....the moral of this story....is to constantly evaluate what you have and be realistic with what you can make with them, both time wise and amount of actual fabric needed.
This quilt has been donated to Quilt of Valour. I made the quilt top, the ladies involved in distribution provided the backing, I quilted it, and they took care of the binding. The picture doesn't do the quilt justice. The fabrics are so cozy looking and feeling, as the one side of the fabric was very much like flannel. I made the blocks with that side up.
This is a simple way to use up your strings. You can do it all in one colour way if you feel the need to be more controlled with your choices or you can use everything and anything. Not only is it simple, but it is a fast quilt to put together and it is mindless sewing for those times you don't want to think or just need to put the peddle to the metal and sew.
Consider making one or two....or five and six, if you've accumulated that many strings......lol. You may be surprised to find out just how many quilts you can actually make with one small container of strings.... Challenge yourself to empty a container of strings and see... Let me know, just how many you can make with the contents.
Enjoy your day everyone and don't forget to take some time for yourself.
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