strings of blue

The rainbow scrap challenge has begun for 2016 and the color of the month is blues. I could not settle on a block... still considering several... but since my motto this year is "use it!" I looked through my scrap bin of blue strips...

My quilting grandmother would have called them strings. She used to piece strings together to make patterns for years before I was born. I used to hang out watching her sew by hand. On old newspapers or phone book pages to stabilize the strings.
Now there is this book...

 I've owned it for many years but never made any of the patterns.
"use it!"
The pattern "energized" seemed to be a good one for the rainbow scraps

It was made with yardage, that matched, with two colorways. I plan to make it with scrap strings in 12 colors. Her lovely example is from a subtle line of fabric so it blends. My scraps go from solids to wild patterns.
I had some work to do to make it work.
I started by reorganizing the strips from width to length as you need the crosscut 42".
Then I sorted the long cuts into light/medium/darkest strips of any width

I chose about 5 or 6 strips to shade from light to dark, sewed the long strips together into strata, then cut 8.5" squares across. Hint, keep one of the sewn lines the same each time so each square is exactly the same.

The pattern says to put these into two piles and cut them on the diagonal in opposite directions...

If you're new to quilting, there are angles marked on your rulers. I placed the 45* angle along the bottom and cut corner to corner. The pattern tells you which segments to sew together to make this

Take care when sewing these delicate bias edges.
There is likely an easier way and I'll find it. I know I've done it differently in the past... (where's that tiny secretary in my brain? On break again? She needs to look thru the memory filing cabinet!)

The pattern calls for much smaller squares, which means you can cut lots more squares from each strata, and have more to work from. I didn't think about that when I chose to work larger.



It will be very scrappy, but might look okay when I have more colors in play as the months progress.
Here's one layout...

The squares will finish at 7.5", and I wanted to make about two sets from each color and have at least a throw sized quilt by the end of the year. That gives me 8 blocks each month. Time will tell if it's a failed experiment or a good one... Go back up and check out an alternate setting. What do you think?