Teenager's Strip Quilt

 Now that my oldest grandson is 13, I decided he needed a quilt that is more suited to an older person.  The last quilt I made him was when he was in kindergarten!

My inspiration was this vintage quilt which appears to use every kind of fabric you can think of:

My plan is to use lots of plaids, solids and more for the blocks and a medium gray for the borders.  The blocks will be strips sewn diagonally to each other.  I didn't want to sew the strips onto paper and then have to remove all the paper.  I also didn't want to go to the trouble and expense to sew the strips onto fabric foundation squares.  I also didn't really want the extra weight of the foundation fabric.

So, I came up with this plan to simply sew the strips together and then cut them into squares.

These blocks end up being 13 inches square.  Here are the measurements of the strips needed for each square:

Three 2 1/2 inch wide by 19 inch long strips.

Two 2 1/2 inch wide by 14 inch long strips.

Two 2 1/2 inch wide by 10 inch long strips.

Two 3 1/2 inch by 6 inch long strips.

 I sewed the strips together like seen in this first picture.  The 3 longest strips are in the middle and then the other strips are sewn on each side of the center strips.  I just eyeballed them to center the smaller strips on the longer strip it was being sewn to.

After pressing the seams all to one side, I placed a 13 inch square that I had already finished on top of the strip set like this.

Then using a rotary cutter and ruler, I trimmed off the excess like this.

The finished block:

The outer edges of the blocks are STRETCHY!  But, if I had used paper foundations and then ripped off the paper, the outcome would have been the same.  Borders will be sewn in between all the blocks, which will stabilize the edges.  I will carefully sew the stretchy sides to the non stretchy borders, and I think it will work out well.

For the twin size I am shooting for, including the borders, I will need 20 of these blocks.  Only 2 more to go!  I just might make a matching one for this new teenager's younger brother.  Now that I have gotten into the swing of things, these blocks have been going together quickly.