Stringing without Foundation

I made these strings without muslin foundations and found it was much easier. First sew string sets about 10 inches square. Then sew pairs of them together like potholders (90 degree rotation of the strings.) The last step cutting the potholders on both diagonals. Each new block has strings on one half perpendicular to the other half. 

Watermelon strings

I made this quick string quilt using **interesting** fabrics from my guild's stash.  As soon as I get the binding stitched to the back, it will be turned in as a donation for our Comfort Quilts program.

 

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Red and Strings

I traded with friends for these blocks but didn't make the quilt until several years had passed. The thickness of blocks with muslin foundation makes them harder to seam together. This time I added sashing to take care of that problem.

Cobweb Finish

I had to look way, way back .... to April of LAST YEAR, to find the post where I showed off this string quilt top.  Many things got in it's way, but last night the last stitches went into the binding.

It's story:  I bought a plastic box labeled "feed sack scraps" at a local quilt show for $15.  The box sat on a shelf for a WHILE.  I had just finished another string quilt when I saw this pattern in a little book of quilt blocks.  The perfect project for my scraps!  The size of the quilt (38" x 51") was dictated by the amount of scraps.  I have a few whole feed sacks stashed away, so that's the border.  

The green solid came from my stash and as you can see, I didn't have quite enough.  I quilted in big stitch.  I had one ball of #8 red pearl cotton and I was afraid that I would run short, so I used pearl cotton on the solids and 3 strands of the same color DMC floss on the prints.  In the center of each block, 12 seams come together and it's hard to make the intersection PERFECT, so I added vintage buttons.  30's reproduction fabric on the back.

check out the Festival of strings

I've entered this string quilt in Rachel's Festival of Strings.

Head over there to see some great string quilts,

or maybe post a few of your own.

 

I'm proud of this one because I introduced many of my local quilting friends

to the joys of strings.

At least a dozen of them contributed 200 or more 6 by 12 inch blocks to me

and together we're making four string quilts out of basically nothing.

I finished the first one and quilted it on my Juki with straight lines and free motion vines and spirals.

Two Finishes

I finished the Emerald Jewel quilt by adding a stop red border followed by the piano keys.

This one measures 56 by 76 inches.

I've had this "ugly" fabric for a very long time, looked at it once in a while but nothing came to mind until I was working on the Emerald quilt. I remembered that the ugly fabric had touches of green so off I went.

I pulled some duller greens and black strips and got down to sewing.

After laying out my design I knew that I'd want to do a border and decided to continue the diamond into the border.

I am very happy with the results. Lots of extra designs within this quilt top.

It measures 45 inches square.

Quilt For Wrap-a-Smile

I got most of these blocks from someone... I've forgotten who. I made a few more, and voila - a quilt for charity. It will go to Wrap-a-Smile. --carol e.

Watermelon String

This quilt was started in a class taught by Diane Rode Schneck and has a muslin foundation. Having made some string quilts with random fabric choices, I wanted to organize the colors this time.

It was hotter than blazes that July and all I could think of was cool watermelon colors. I did buy green yardage to complete the quilt but had reds to spare. The quilt is 92 inches square.

Thanks for letting me share, Brenda.

Ann

Pineapple Passion

Hi all - following an email to Brenda a little while ago she very kindly sent me an invitation to join the group. I love string quilts and follow a couple of blogs where string quilts are the focus. I haven't been able to start a new string quilt at the moment because of hand problems  (having hand surgery next week) but as I explained to Brenda I have been working on a Pineapple quilt and she was happy for me to post this.  This quilt will  be nine blocks across and nine down and I sometimes wonder whether I should have gone smaller!!

I am putting it together six blocks at a time and deciding as I go along how to quilt it!  More blocks are pieced waiting to stitched into sets of six,  think it has taken me longer to work on this one as I am using heaps of strips from my stash of older fabrics, some 20years old, and the colours are softer than I like to use, I love brights and am a collector of Kaffe Fasset and company fabrics (in addition to heaps of other fabrics of course) but just had to use some of the stash from my early days of quilting. There were more black florals in my stash than I had realised so they are forming my borders.
Looking forward to being a part of the group and have ideas for making more quilts with strings when I have full use of my hand again, which I hope will only be a matter of three or four weeks. Looking forward to reading all the posts while I am out of action!

Green Lover

I love the color green and tend to purchase fabrics of varied shades of green. So it was easy to choose fabric strips for my latest string quilt.

I need to make 18 more rectangle blocks before I sew the rows together. After which, I'll make a piano key border from the leftover greens sprinkling in a few zebra and red fabrics.