Christmas Diamonds

Good morning all. 
 I just wanted to stop in and show you the first string quilt I made.  Two years ago I saw a post from Diane Wilson at MQR (sorry I can't find her post to link to) showing a drawing of a quilt that she was going to make. 


  I knew right away that I had to try it so I contacted her.  There is no 'pattern' except for her drawing so I kinda drafted my own pattern in the block size I wanted to use and set about cutting strips out of these fabrics.   Plus I used a small dark brown strip to separate the two colors.   I decide to use some really old ugly fabric for the 7"x10" foundations.


Once I had half of the blocks made I started putting them on the design wall as I made the other half.  Notice that the colors had to be reversed to complete the diamond shape.  I had to keep reminding myself of this little fact as I sewed the strips.  lol
  [BTW... a lot of those lighter strips were replaced by darker strips in the final quilt].  

 I knew I only wanted to make a small snuggle quilt so once I finished the blocks I needed.... I started to design the borders.  I went to EQ and played with different ideas until I finally chose this border using this block.  When these are sewn together it continues the diamond theme. 

As you can see I made a small dark stop border to frame the center blocks...  and then   added two small borders on both sides of the border diamonds.  I wanted them to seem to float along the border and I think I've achieved that effect. 

 

Here is a picture of the finished top.  It has been quilted and snuggled under these last two Christmas's. 

I can sure see this pattern made in many different color arrangements.  And I may just do that one day.   I have a lot more foundations ready to go and a LOT more ugly fabric waiting to be used.  ;0)

Have a great day....

LindaKs 

Linda Quilts Too

String Ring Table Mat

My String Thing-Along project is to make a quilt out of these string rings, and I've got all 12 of them made now.  I will do an update on that here soon.

But I am also making some extra ones up as table mats, which will go under flower centerpieces at my dad's 80th birthday party on Memorial Day.

I just posted a tutorial for making these on my blog.  Come and see!

Wonky Strips

Hi everyone.  My name is Linda and I live in Phillipsburg, Kansas and I'd like to say Thanks for the invite to join you all here Brenda.  I'm happy to be able to share some of my wonky strip blocks I've been making.  


First I should tell you where my wonky strips come from.  I have a Go cutter and I love using the large Tumbler die.   In fact I've made several tumbler quilts in many sizes.


<<<< First I cut a 7½" strip of fabric & fold it to fit within the area shown with the arrows.  One pass through the Go and I've quickly cut 6 tumblers with a whole lot of leftover pieces of fabric.  
The latest fabric collection I cut tumblers from was called Aqua Terra from Connecting Threads and these are some of the leftover strips.  
  

Well I can't cut these down into squares so I had to come up with some way to use them as they are.  So I decided to start making wonky string blocks using 5½" squares of paper as my foundation.
Here is one block in progress....  

 ..... and these are just a few of the blocks that I've sewn so far.  
I'm not sure what I'll wind up doing with them when they're all finished but for now I'm having a lot of fun just sewing these. 


That's it for now and I'd like to invite you all to stop in and visit me when you're out blog hopping.   
See you then...
LindaKs at Linda Quilts Too

Strings, strings, and more strings

I wish I could tell you this was a string quilt

but it is made from carefully cut curves.

The maker, Agnes Ryckman, made it with her mother

and her daughter machine quilted it.

I've been wondering if bias cut strips would also work

I saw this quilt at some local shows in the last few weeks.

I took this picture of a string quilt with a light centre

just to show you how one simple element can unify the whole quilt.

 

Here's the piano key border with the attached explanation.

Double click to read it.

Meanwhile, I got blocks in the mail from Cheryl, Paulette, and Carol.

Thanks to all of you, and thanks to Carol for the extra fabric she tucked into the envelope.

I made two blocks this morning, so I think my count must be close to 60 now.

Any more blocks in the mail right now?

I'm hoping to get it together before we wrap things up

at the String Thing Along blog at the end of June.

Thanks to all of you for playing along with me.

I've had fun!

Note: We don't have to wrap things up permanently in June,

but we started with a deadline, and I'm willing to honor it.

But we can continue, maybe with a short summer break,

if my blog authors and followers want to do that.

Just let me know.

Great mail!

Thanks to Julie and Paulette for these great blocks. That puts the total to 50.

Little string star

I bought this string star mini quilt at a show this weekend to hang in my sewing space.

It measures 10.5 inches and it was made by the same quiltmaker

who made the solid string quilt-as-you-go quilt I posted below.

I like the pinwheel in the centre, and the blue background

which calms down the scrappiness of the strings.

I received string blocks this week from Finn and Jeane and Jeanneke. 

I think I'm up to 45 or so.

Thanks so much!

Solid strings

A string quilt by Evelyn Hoeppner,

featured quilter at this weekend's Barnswallows show

in Morden, Manitoba, Canada

On-Point Illusion

 The rose floral fabric is a busy focus fabric followed by a black strip followed by black/white strips on a foundation of muslin.

 This is how four blocks of b/w look sewn together and below four blocks of the rose fabric sewn together.

Because the black strip is the prominent center diagonally with the rose floral acting as the solid, the quilt appears to be on-point when all blocks are sewn together..... I loved making this quilt and finally got it bound this morning...... LOL..... it measures 68 by 86 inches!

String Quilts at the AQS Paducah Quilt Show

I just returned from the quilt show in Paducah and thought I would share the string quilts that I saw there.

The first two quilts were hanging in the show.

This string quilt was hanging over the outside of a booth.

I saw this lady sitting outside the quilt museum and asked if I could take a photo of her selvage bag.  This could also be made with string blocks.

LuAnn @  http://luannsloosethreads.blogspot.com

My Green Tree of Life

Hello, I am Katell, living near Toulouse in France.
I have always loved scrappy quilts and my new pleasure is to use selvedges. Of course I was totally influenced by Karen Griska and her book Quilts from the Selvage Edge.
In Winter I made a small star with an ice-blue sky :

Last week I celebrated Spring with My Green Tree of Life. It is an oversized classical bloc with the same easy half squares sewn with selvages. I call it green because of its main color, but also because all fabrics are reclycled !

Have a nice Spring time!

Katell, Quilteuse Forever