Design Wall: Jean MaDan Stacked Blocks

Click here for free tutorial of Jean MaDan's Stacked Blocks pattern

Half the blocks put up to see how it's going to look.

I was poking through my bins of 100% cotton strings last month and uncovered the plastic pouch of all the half-triangle squares I made back in 2/2017, so decided to stop saving and start doing. There were 80 of those HTSs in that pouch, making a nice 8x10 layout, and based on my chart of quilt sizes I decided a 9.5" block would create the size quilt I wanted. I prefer to make 'em big, especially if they'll probably be donated to a shelter or a needy family.

This pattern certainly fit well with my almost compulsive need to regulate and use things to their utmost. From my bins I pulled all the long strings and set them aside. Then I started pairing up matching shorter strings. What was left in the string bins were 2 tiny piles of "orphans"--singleton strings too short to create 2 sides of the block.

From there it was a process of using the paired-up sets, shorter ones first while the blocks were still small (they're built up from the HTS corners). As the blocks outgrew the shorter strings, those strings were tossed back into the bin and the long strings were put into play.

I ran out of usable strings roughly 1/2 way through this project--hurrah!! That was the point: use up my strings! So I started cutting up fabrics that have been in my stash since the beginning of (my quilting) time, fabrics that I was already bored with, fabrics that defied category (light? dark? neutral?), and other oddities that found their way into my stash with no predetermined purpose. I started cutting these strips more generously than the original strings were cut: usually, anything less than 1.5" wide goes into the string bin; 1.5" or wider gets trimmed to a size that fits Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User System. Strips that are 3/4" wide don't fill a block very quickly, and by this point "quicker" was what I was going for.

I delved into my containers of that system generously too: I used those same 'categories' mentioned above to cull the 1.5" strips and the 2.5" strips (which I cut in half to create 2 strips of 1.25"). With 80 blocks being built out to 9.5", there was a LOT of fabric to be used up!

Once done and trimmed, I randomly started pairing the 80 blocks. Half of them are finished off with a 1.5" strip of "solid black" fabric (I used 3-4 dark fabrics that read "black" from a distance), half of them are finished off with a print fabric; the placement of the 2 blocks is always the same, so it was a simple matter of stacking the "black" blocks next to the "print" blocks in their proper relative positions, then chain stitching the stacks into 40 pairs of blocks.

Another run-through of those pairs created 20 sets of 4 blocks, and the penultimate chain-stitching fest yielded 10 strips of 8 blocks. I put 5 strips up on the design wall and took a picture:

then covered them with the other set of 5 strips and took a picture:

By this time the design wall is drooping off its roller from all the weight

then cobbled the 2 together for a virtual design wall:

"We're gonna need a bigger boat!"

I was done constructing blocks, but I wasn't done with those short strings! The string stash had gone from 2 full bins of sorted values down to 1 bin half full of leftovers. From those leftovers I made borders, cutting the strings down to either 3.75" or 2.75" and sewing them together in 2 long strips. These were ironed well, trimmed to 3.5" and 2.5" respectively, then rolled up for future use:

By the time I took the above pictures, I had already used a portion of the 3.5" roll to border the 4th quilt going to California (details in a future post). It's marvelous to have a ready-made scrap border all set to go!

I've made some changes to my string criteria, based on this experience:

Anything less than this seems never to get used, no matter what the pattern, so there's little point in hanging on to a scrap that thin and short. Others may disagree, of course. I need permission to let go, and gave it to myself with this note.

My string bin today (I've been doing more cutting and trimming, obviously, as there are some long strings tossed in there):

As fun as this pattern was, it'll probably be the only one I make. I can take it out of my "Quilts to Make Someday" folder on my laptop--there will be others to take its place. In a virtual folder, you can always fit one more idea in with the 100s of others taking up residence. I certainly have no lack of future patterns to try!