More strata sorting -

 

 

The other day - Linda - asked me to show how I sort the strips -

 

For my Upstairs/Downstairs tops - 

 

So I did a post on how I sorted a basic roll of 20 strips - 

 

And said that I'd give you more examples of strata sorting - 

 

From some of my recent projects -

 

Before I showed/explained the "layout formula" I use - ;))

 

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The "inspiration" for these quilts comes from - 

 

Missouri Star Quilt Company - Crossing Paths - HERE - 

 

I took their basic idea and tweaked it a little to suit me -

 

I made a couple of tops - using their 5 x 6 layout - HERE - and HERE - 

 

But I like my 6 x 8 layout better -

It's slightly larger - and much more symmetrical -

 

With the EVEN number of rows and column -  

 

So - for a 6 x 8 layout - 48 blocks - 60" x 80" - 

 

I need 80 strips - 2 identical 40-strip rolls - or 4 identical 20-strip rolls - ;))

 

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My first example is my most recent one - Winter's Grandeur - 

 

These two identical jelly rolls had 40 strips each -

 

But only 9 different fabrics - 

 

One "Christmas ball" print - 

Two different "silver" prints - but VERY similar in color/value - 

One "white" one -

Three "light gold" fabrics that were VERY similar in color/value/pattern -

One "medium gold" print - 

One "checkered" print - 

Not a lot of variety -

 

 

But I had 5 "checkered" strips and 3 "medium gold" ones in each roll -

 

So I used those for my MAIN DIAGONAL - 

 

For my 8 DIFFERENT block combinations - 

And mixed the rest of the fabrics up the best I could - 

And when I sewed the strata and made the blocks - 

 

They all looked alike to me - 

 

There were differences - but they were VERY subtle - 

 

And I thought - for sure - this was going to be a disaster - 

So I grit my teeth - and numbered the block sets 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 - 

I wanted to try to space out the 5 "checkered" block sets - 

And mix in the 3 "gold" ones - here and there - 

 

So I numbered the "gold" sets - #1 - #4 - and #7 - 

 

The rest were the "checkered" ones - 

 

And since all of those looked alike - LOL - 

 

I just put them up on the wall -

According to my "formula" - which I will explain later -

 

And it worked -

 

Much to my surprise - 

 

This was the THIRD time my "formula" worked -

 

I think I might be on to something - LOL - ;))

 

 

My second example is Gleaned -

 

The one I made before Winter's Grandeur - 

 

I had a similar experience where I loved the colors in the jelly roll - 

But I had no idea whether or not it would work -

I had two identical jelly rolls - 40 strips each - 

Most of the fabrics were "doubles" but a few were "singles" 

Since I had two rolls - the "singles" quickly became "doubles" - LOL - 

 

Anyway - I wasn't sure -

 

But I thought I could/would sort them similar to the way I did when I made my Meredith quilt top - just to see what happened - 

I needed EIGHT DIFFERENT block combinations -

 

Each with a DOMINANT MAIN diagonal - 

 

So I chose the darkest strips for those - 

 

Two ORANGE - 

Two GRAY/ORANGE - 

Two BROWN - 

Two GREEN - 

 

But later swapped out the GRAY/ORANGE for the BLACK/WHITE -

the last one on the right in the top row - 

 

 

 

I sorted the strips for the strata - 

 

More or less so they looked "pretty" -

 

And tried to shade them from dark to light - 

 

 

Then sewed two sets of each - 

 

The blocks came out OK - 

 

I had 6 matching blocks in 8 different combinations - 

 

But I wasn't that thrilled with any of them - 

 

And I had NO IDEA what the end result would look like - 

 

 

I showed/explained how I laid out the blocks in this post - HERE - 

And I can honestly say - 

I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out so well -

And began to think that my "formula" was kind of cool - ;))

I was going to explain the "formula" - 

 

Step-by-step - using Meredith as the example - 

 

 

 

I have photos of most of the steps on that one - 

 

But this post is getting a little too long - 

 

And I'm getting tired - 

 

So - I'll do a "layout" one tomorrow or the next day - 

 

Depending on how long it takes me to write it up - 

 

I know you don't like "cliff-hangers" - 

 

But hopefully - it will be worth the wait -

 

Or maybe - it will be too much information -

 

Either way - it will help me "document" how I do it - LOL - ;))

 

 

 

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -