Cut 150 fabrics and then we'll sew..................

I have had some questions asked about my method of making a quilt like the log cabin I showed yesterday.  If I told you that you needed to get out 150 fabrics and cut two 1.5" strips off of each, you probably wouldn't sign up for my class.  First you need to press the fold marks out of each fabric (and if you don't you won't have straight strips) and then stack them 3 or 4 fabrics deep and cut and then fold the fabric and put it back on the shelf (about 50 times). 

If that is what I had to go through I wouldn't be making a quilt with 150 or more fabrics in it.  In the first picture I have cut a 4.5" strip, two 2.5" strips, a 2" strip and a 1.5" strip.  I know that these are sizes I will use.  You have to decide what sizes you will cut.
Then I store them in boxes clearly marked with the sizes and when I'm ready to do a log cabin quilt, I just take the box off the shelf and pull out 150-300 different fabrics and cut them to length.  I store those like this.  I can be ready to sew the log cabin blocks in about an hour.  I get bored easily if I don't have a good variety of fabrics in my quilts.  Planning ahead and being organized is the best way to do a scrap/multifabric quilt.

I have days where I will do a lot of cutting and I may not sew at all.  If you cut your fabrics as you purchase them, then it is not a big production to have to cut for a quilt all in one day.  I buy for stash, rarely for a project, so some of you are probably shaking your heads, because you don't have a stash.  You probably don't make quilts with over a hundred different fabrics in them. 

A lot of you comment about the color in my quilts, but with a scrap type quilt, value is more important than color.  What I am saying is that you will probably have every color in the quilt because it is a scrap/multifabric quilt, so I make the pattern show up by having contrasting values.  Every color is in the dark group and every color is in the light group.  The most effective method is NOT matching blue with blue when pairing fabrics.  Put 2 different colors together. 

Any questions, to continue this discussion?