Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Strings for QOV



These are the first four 12.5" string blocks
for a quilt top that will be donated to Quilts of Valor.




These are being pieced onto thin muslin.




One consistent 1.5" red string
plus a variety of scrappy blue strings
form the center for each block.




Thirty-five blocks will use up a LOT of scrappy 
white-on-black and black-on-white strings.

The goal is a layout five blocks wide
by seven blocks long.

LOVE the way these look together!

Quiltdivajulie


Sunday, February 7, 2016

Rail Fence Strings

Since I wasn't careful with the amount of strings cut for Chinese Coins, there were enough to make a second quilt, too. This used some of the strings discarded during the first quilt; it's much louder and more vibrant.

I also found some strings of triangles in the scrap bin. They were a failed experiement that worked beautifully here.
Improvistational Rail Fence from Strings
Using stripes was great fun! There were more striped fabrics than I originally saw. So many fabrics look completely different in small pieces.

I used two different striped fabrics in the binding... Because there wasn't enough of either to go all the way around. More on my blog here.

Enjoy the day,
Ann

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Round Lake is Rectangular


I love to reuse fabric found in clothing. 

There is really something mystical about it.

This little quilt has found its way into our old camper. Its a rough style of camper that is mostly a "Man Cave on wheels."

This quilt is my way of putting our family in the camper with him. This quilt was formed from intuition. I was a young Mom with two toddlers of my own and I provided paid childcare for other mothers who worked outside the home.

I had my sewing machine in a case ready for a complete nap time in my house.

Then I'd sew slowly and quietly on the machine while babies napped on the floor beside me. Eventually, I returned to hand stitching, it was must simpler and easier to stash away from inquiring little fingers.

The light denim in this top came from a pair of "Preggo Pants" that I made but it was a pair of overalls.

The orange corduroy came from a set of overalls that were given to one of our sons when they were just a wee one and didn't have any use.

The darker blue denim came from a pair of jeans that my husband wore out.

The green corduroy was a remnant found at a thrift store.

The rust corduroy is from another pair of pants I made after I started to get my figure back after pregnancies.

The cream colored border fabric was a new remnant fabric.

The fish appliques were the fabrics of my first ever purchase of a thing called a "Fat Quarter" and the backing was an emergency blanket from a garage sale. The sandwich was missing the batting. But the layers provided a really nice fluff and warmth to it. I did my first machine quilting on this blanket back in 1992. It was simple 'in the ditch' machine quilting that taught me that sewing a straight line inside the ditch is actually trickier that I first thought.

Strings come in many shapes and sizes. 

Happy Quilting everyone!