Annette's String Quilt

This beautiful scrappy string quilt was made by Annette. Notice how she changed the center strings of each block from orange to golden yellow for the border blocks.

A couple of antique string quilts

These two beauties are in my collection and I thought it was time to give them some air!  This one is a top that I have never quilted because I thought it would ruin the value.  My late husband fell in love with it as much as I did; we bought it at an antique show, but I can't remember where.  In any case, I have been told that it is clearly an African-American work of art because of the way the strips are laid out. Isn't this wonderful? It is a top that I would estimate is late 19th-very early 20th.

This one is very heavy, big stitches, backed with homespun (with a few mouse holes) Strings - same vintage.  I bought this in Florida and it came from an estate in one of the Carolinas.

Now that I have been in Africa, it is obvious to me that these are African-American made. Strips are a traditional recurring motif in many of the crafts.  These are just a couple of examples.

So that's my antique string story.  Enjoy!

a bit psychedelic

Admittedly, it has been forever since I've posted here (let alone on my own blog - LOL). I sew with strips all the time, as you probably know: but string quilts are a rarity for me. 

Been busy teaching and traveling and recently got home from teaching at the South African National Quilt Festival in KwaZulu Natal --- and very influenced by the colors and patterns of Africa (not to mention the fabrics!).

I was blotto from the time warp, but happy to be back at my sewing machine after watching my students sew for a week.  About the only thing I could do was to finish the string quilt I had started before I left for a new baby my daughter's good friend had recently.

Finally got it together and quilted, but when I took a photo to post on my blog I was a bit taken aback on how totally wonky it really was.  But hey, string quilts are supposed to be wonky - right? And when you cut and sew without a ruler, that's what happens.

By the way, I might pass along something I finally figured out as I was sewing these strips down to the paper.  I realized that I only needed to sew one seam to the paper: set the first one down and put one on top of it, as usual.  Sewed the two to the square of paper and folded the paper back. Then I just sewed one strip to another without the paper, used the paper to trim when I was done, and only had one seam to rip. OTOH - maybe that's why this looks so wacko.

Cheers, everybody!  Enjoy.

warm regards,

Rayna

Red and Green Strings in Rectangular Blocks

I prepared a red and green string quilt as a project for our Possum Town Quilters.
Using an old algebra book for foundations we placed a yellow strip diagonally in each block with
red on one side and green on the other side.

 

Carla, Lawana, and Carol sewing strings.

String quilt

I finished a string quilt this week.

String quilts are my favorite kind of quilt!

These were hand me down scraps.

Someone else's trash became MY TREASURE!

More about this quilt on my blog here

String block layouts

We are doing a scrappy string block swap at my guild, and I have made a few suggestions on how this type of blocks can be stitched together. I first posted them on my blog Mrs Moen and Brenda thought some of you would like to see them too, so here they are.

 

Straight

 Diagonal

 Vertical zigzag

Horisontal zigzag

On point

Adding solid fabrics will calm down and tie all the colours together. This will also make it easier to piece the blocks together with regards to all the seam allowances. 

 Diagonal with sashing

 Straight with setting squares

Diagonal with setting squares

Have fun:)

Bright diamond strings finished!

We finished this quilt in record time.

I don't have a shot of the whole quilt,

but here you can see the sashing and borders.

It is straight line quilted in the sashings and tied within each block.

head over to my blog to take another look.

Talkin' Turkey

It has been some time since I posted here. I did some string blocks last winter. It is Bonnie Hunter's pattern. Hers was all in reds, I went a bit more scrappy with my version and busted a lot of stash!  I have made six queen size quilt tops  over the winter months. Have a lot of quilting ahead of me.

Boxed Strings Cornerstones

Strings 2.0

Here my strings are sewn together with a 3 inch sashing.

I used the same red print for all the setting blocks.

It still needs a narrow inner border

and then a wide string border.