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