QAYG String blocks

I have made QAYG Strings blocks for Jan Macfadyen of sewmanyquiltstoolittletime.blogspot.com on a couple of occasions.  Over the past couple of days I have looked through the small stash of fabric that I have here in NZ and decided a lot of it has hung around too long - it needs to be used up! 

I cut all the scraps and unwanted pieces of fabric into strips of varying widths, de-boned one of my husband's shirts which had a worn collar, used bits of batting leftovers and created these blocks to send to Jan to augment her depleted stock of QAYG blocks.

The first two sets of blocks measure 10.5" square, the last set measures 12.5" square. These are the sizes Jan works with to create the many, many quilts she makes for charity.  At present she is making quilts for a Woman's Refuge.

Jan welcomes all sorts of donations: quilt tops, orphan blocks, fabric and batting (pieces or scraps), QAYG Strings blocks like the ones I have made.  All is explained on her blog, even how to use those small bits of leftover backing and putting them to good use.
Give it a go!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 January Blocks

HI!  I'm Myra from Busy Hands Quilts.  In an effort to use more of the stash in 2016, I'm participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016.  I'm using a ton of 1930s 1.25" strips which I purchased off eBay over ten years ago.  I remember vividly that we were building our house when I bought ten pint size bags stuffed with 1930s strips.  They represent a tiny drop in the amount of fabric I bought that year due to stress.  These fabrics could potentially be 20-30 years old depending on how long the person before me had them; I've no way of really knowing.

January's blocks are blue, and there is lots of variety among the strips which is perfect for a string quilt.  My goal is to not use the same fabric twice in a block.  I'll end up with a rainbow of blocks by year's end, and I'll probably make transition blocks that are half of two colors to blend the movement between colors in the quilt.  I'm envisioning a barn raising pattern at this point.  I'm using 10" foundation paper with a thin layer of glue stick to hold the middle string in place, leftovers from this custom Thimbleberries string quilt I made in 2013.

I'm aiming for a large bed quilt 95" square for my bed.  We turned off the heater on our waterbed last spring and didn't notice a difference until this fall/winter when we've found we need more blankets than ever before.  The current count is 5, so I should use wool batting in this quilt!

After making 7 blocks this afternoon, I realize the bags of strips will make far more blocks than I need for my quilt.  I'm even wondering if I could make the whole bed quilt from blue alone since the 7 blocks didn't make a dent in the blue pile!   I'll make as many as I have time for each month and make a second {or third or fourth} quilt with the extra blocks.  

Hello, fellow string thing alongers!

A reader emailed me yesterday to join us here at this blog.

Now I can't find the email in my inbox or my deleted folder.

Please send me your message again

because we would love to have you.

My apologies for being a techno-idiot.

This photo is from two years ago,,

but I thought I'd include it to show the vertical variation

of Wanda's quilt below.

Keep stringing along!

Crooked strings........

I finished the binding on this quilt tonight.  I wash my batik fabrics (I don't wash any others) so that always makes a crooked end on them.  When I do the clean up cut it is generous (1" - 1.5") and that is what I used for this quilt and another similar one (see here).  This quilt is about 58" x 68.5".