CAMP Baby Quilt

 No one's posted here for a while so I thought I'd add this since it's sort of a string quilt. This is probably the sixth baby quilt I've made in this style. Just find a four-letter-word and go. The words are made of Chinese Coin sets; at least that's how I think of them.

Our niece chose an adorable wallpaper/mural for the baby's room that has a row of  stylized deer, fox, bear, and rabbit in approximately these colors. 

CAMP baby quilt

There are quite a few browns in my stash but I had to work to soften them. Now the C looks like weathered wood.

More information on my blog.

Ann

String Star Quilt

With an overflowing scrap bag last year, I decided to try a slightly different string quilt. 

String Star baby quilt

After dividing my strings into light and dark piles, the diamond foundations were cut from newsprint. Then a lot of sewing. And pressing. 

The outer background was created from isosceles triangles, again with a newsprint foundation, until an octagon was formed. Finally I sewed four right triangles for the corners to square it up and finished with a narrow border to stabilize all those strings. 

The quilting started with a sand dollar design in the center and spiraled outward. It's simple as long as you remember to spiral counterclockwise and keep the fabric from stretching on the bias.

Thanks to Maureen for reminding us to post on this blog, too. 

Ann

Last Year's Roses

I finished this quilt last year, posted it on my other blog but never added it here. Sorry.

Why would I call it a string quilt? The background is composed of skinny to slightly stubby strings and scraps. After making several with a wider range of values I wanted one that could be a background for appliqué. 

And then I didn't really appliqué much. Funny how adroitly I weasel out of that task.

Chinese Coins with Roses quilt

The leaves and stems are machine appliquéd but the roses were... I don't know... free-hand/crazy/log cabin pieced. When they were large enough I added corners of blue fabric or small sets of Coins to allow me to insert them into single or double columns of the background. Does that make sense?

Rose detail

The finished top aged in my closet for about a year before I finally hauled it out to quilt. At least the roses didn't fade. I have a bad habit of setting tops aside until they are way out of date/out of style. I guess you could say I'm out of my mind. 

Anyway, it's a cute top that used lots of leftovers and strings with only a bit of fabric pulled from my stash for the stems and leaves. That was about a yard. And it was old/vintage fabric. And it's all gone now, too. So not much more work than my usual string quilts. 

Happy New Year to all. 
Ann

Arranging Strings Differently

There are other ways to arrange strings. Lately I've been exploring a few of them with Chinese Coins which are basically columns of narrow strings with or without sashing. Over the summer I made this quilt for my niece .

Pflugerville Coins

It started with small amounts of fabric instead of true scrap strings. The fabrics were paired before they were cut into 8-inch WOF and then hand cut into strings/coins. As the pairs ran out, I inserted some real scraps or the beginning of the next pair to segue from one set to the next. However, the quilt could easily be made of scraps.

Coins are easier for me when I sew smaller sets, like sheets of paper, and only sew the column at the end. You can adjust the seam allowance to straighten out wiggles.

The quilting is basic straight lines with the walking foot across the surface.

Quilting detail on Pflugerville Coins

The sky blues are soft and summery to me. More information on my blog. Also, Rachel posted another Chinese Coins quilt here a few years ago. And Wanda has a glorious version where the Coins/strings are vertical. And Brenda posted a scrappier one here.

Ann

Medallion Strings

This is the final quilt I made to clear out my scrap bin: a medallion Chinese Coins/piano keys/strings. Take your choice. It's interesting to see the crossover of names.

CCIV: Medallion

More information here. Now to start filling that bag again.

Enjoy the day, Ann

Neutral Strings Quilted

I quilted this top in a single spiral on my home machine. It's easy to do although I didn't hold my hands properly. The package should be held to offset the natural tendency to stretch on the bias and I didn't do that.

Neutral Strings baby quilt

Washing and rebinding helped.

Back of neutral string quilt shows lovely scraps from Stephie and spiral quilting

More info on my blog here.

Ann

Neutral Strings

These were absolutely the last of the string blocks. Knowing all the colorful ones were gone, I didn't have much hope for them. How wrong I am.

Brown, white, and black string quilt top

I may like this one best of all. More details on my blog.

Ann

Green Strings with a Bit of Paper Piecing

It's the time of year to finish things up. Back in January I sewed all my strings into single color blocks. I used a few to make a baby quilt but the rest sat on the shelf. Until now.

Because they are the liveliest I pulled the greens first. Almost enough to make a toddler quilt. Two blocks short. But there were two purple blocks in the pile so they were added.

Green String Toddler quilt

The red bits are a discarded paper pieced border from years ago. I sewed them in the middle of the blocks until there wasn't enough. You can see the last smidge in the top right corner, placed to use all of it. I didn't worry about centering properly or perfect points on the string blocks but think it looks fine.

The channel quilting was done with a walking foot. No measuring; just used the foot as a guide. After washing the quilting really stands out.

The binding came from my box of leftover binding bits. It's an easy finish for a soft toddler quilt.

More information on my blog here.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Ann

Kaleidoscope String Quilt

It's just been gifted to a charming new baby. Her parents love the bright, cheerful colors of balloon launches. So...

Suhavi's Stars - a spiderweb quilt

I pulled these scrap triangles to make stars. After several arrangements, they looked best on the diagonal.

Stars for the spiderweb scrap quilt

Then it simply needed leftover strings - loads of them.

More information about the quilting here and the backing and binding here.

Quilt Details

• Size: 40" x 40"
• Pattern: Spiderweb
• Batting: Mountain Mist Cream Rose 100% cotton
• Thread: Gutermann peach cotton
• Quilting: Walking foot

Enjoy the day, Ann

Yellow and White Strings

I finished this baby quilt while visiting Boston. Quilted on my daughter's featherweight.

Yellow and white string baby quilt

At New Year's I sewed all my string scraps into 8.5" blocks by color. These are all the yellows and most of the white. Edit: The quilt finished about 41" square.

Detail of quilting and binding.

Ann

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

Improv String or Chinese Coins

We formed a small book study to work through The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Wood. Her second "score" is strings. Here's my first top.

Improv String #1

We discovered we have much more to say and chose to spend another month on this topic. More details on my blog.

Enjoy the day!

Ann

Spiderwebs

I'm just starting this quilt. The original background is an old Alexander Henry (1998) floral in the top center. Since there isn't enough of this to finish an entire quilt, I chose other fabrics that blend with it. Now I think some are too dark (like the top left) while others are too busy (like the bottom right.)

Spiderweb blocks

But it's fun to work this out!

Ann

Another Rayna Workshop

I finally finished a small quilt from Rayna Gillman's workshop last August. What a wonderful teacher she is! All the participants had such different visions and were largely self-directed. Rayna spent the day walking in a circle consulting with each of us in turn. She demonstrated modules, encouraged our ideas and offered alternatives when we ran into a wall.

Mine took so long because I was trying to use everything. Once I pared the modules back it fell into place. Hopefully, like Lori, there will be more in the future. Lots of ideas running through my head.

My quilt from Rayna Gilman's workshop: 24" x 22"

Thanks, Rayna!

Ann

Log Cabin

Would you call this a string quilt? It's not like the others but it's my "final gasp" before actually throwing a string away. Unlike most string quilts, all the logs finish the same 1/2" width. Any string 1" or larger works. I used to cut the strings to the appropriate width before sewing but now just sew them on and trim back.

Log Cabin of 1/2" finished strings

I started making the blocks when my scrap bag was overflowing. Now, it's a habit. When a quick quilt is needed, these blocks are on hand. And my scrap bag is still full. Go figure.

Ann

Toddler Quilt with Strings

I found the last of the red and string blocks - enough to make a toddler quilt. These seem to have more blue strings than the previous one but the setting is the same.

Ann

Stringing without Foundation

I made these strings without muslin foundations and found it was much easier. First sew string sets about 10 inches square. Then sew pairs of them together like potholders (90 degree rotation of the strings.) The last step cutting the potholders on both diagonals. Each new block has strings on one half perpendicular to the other half. 

Red and Strings

I traded with friends for these blocks but didn't make the quilt until several years had passed. The thickness of blocks with muslin foundation makes them harder to seam together. This time I added sashing to take care of that problem.

Watermelon String

This quilt was started in a class taught by Diane Rode Schneck and has a muslin foundation. Having made some string quilts with random fabric choices, I wanted to organize the colors this time.

It was hotter than blazes that July and all I could think of was cool watermelon colors. I did buy green yardage to complete the quilt but had reds to spare. The quilt is 92 inches square.

Thanks for letting me share, Brenda.

Ann