My First String of 2019

Happy New Year Everyone!!

A friend challenged me to get started in this new year. So I thought to make a string quilt because it's easy.
Here's what I've accomplished so far.

I used a type of tissue paper as a foundation. That's the white area you can see.

 I like all the gray fabrics and was happy to use as many as possible in this project.

I'll need to make 3 more blocks to finish the top then add borders. The blocks are 9.5 inches unfinished.

There's more to see on my blog and the story behind these fabrics.

 

Veterans & Strings

Back in August, I set a goal for myself to make quilts for the Veterans who attend our local Seniors Center. Below are three of nine that I made, quilted and presented to the Vets. They were very pleased to receive each a quilt.

Here's a link to the rest of the story.  LINK

 

 This one is a simple fractured diamond star design and I added the white stars to make things interesting.

 This is also fractured diamond star but I left out one portion of each diamond star to frame an eagle in the center.

This last one was made from strips of fabric I had left over from some other project and the bargello bottom was also from a previous project.

 

Another Fracture

This measures 45" square. I made it as a donation quilt. I quilted it on my Janome.

Busy Making Strings

July and August have just flown by. I've been busy making string quilts and attempting to get rid of diminish my stash.

This one was easy except for the piano keys I decided to add to use up more scraps. It took me longer to make that border than it did to make the blocks. Go figure!!

The fractured diamond came from all my green scraps, which BTW have doubled. How did that happen??

I love watching this particular design develop. Depending on whether you use a specific color to outline the "kite" shape and if you place one color as the "last sewn" such as the gray fabric I used, the possibilities are endless and awesome. This quilt was quilted by me...can you believe it!!! I'm taking a long-arm class and I can quilt on anything that I want. OMG, I can't wait to quilt another quilt top soon!!

Two Christmas Gifts - Done

My granddaughter is now in kindergarten and has to great teachers. She wants to gift them something special and asked me to "make something special." How could I not after that request. I asked each teacher what their favorite colors were and went to work.

The first is of course a lion. The favorite colors are orange & white which are the school colors & the lion is the mascot. It measures 20" square.

The second favorite colors are red & black. I added a grayish fabric to jazz it up. This one also measures 20" square.

Now if I can convince my granddaughter to wait until the class Christmas party.....laugh out loud! 

3 Fractured Diamonds

I was motivated to sew this past week and pumped out 3 fractured diamond quilt tops. More info can be found on my blog.

All strips are from my stash which now has a dent in the pile.

When quilted these quilt little quilts (36" sq) will be given to my helping hands group. 

I'll be machine quilting each one on my Janome.

I hope everyone enjoys their week. It's raining here in central Texas which is very unusual in June but we are not complaining one little bit!!

From UFO with Love

This quilt is made from strips of fabrics I had sewn into tubes, cut into 2 1/2 inch sections......to be
 un-sewed, if that's even a word and sewn into some other project.......that was two years ago. I found the tubes the other week when clearing out a UFO box. I know that no one else has ever had that happen!!
I immediately stopped clearing out things and got down to un-sewing, designing, then sewing the rows together. Of course there was not enough to make a good sized quilt so I added the green fabrics and the rest of the tubed strips. When I stood back, I
 thought that the quilt still needed something.
Since this little project was going to my helping hands community project, I decided to add
ABC in artistic letters....someone is really going to love this little lap quilt.

Fractured Diamond in Pink

My granddaughter, who is 4, suggested that I really needed to make a quilt using the pink floral in the above photo. She was adamant that I use as much pink as possible. Since I'm not a pink type of girl, I did manage to find one other scrap of what reads as a solid pink to use as a frame around the gray diamonds. She was pleased with the look so I'm off the hook......LOL

I made this one a couple of years ago using scraps from my black/white stash. I really love the way the red seems to pop out at you. and the small piano key border pulls everything together.

This was the first Fractured Diamond that I made about 4 years ago. I used earth-tones. It amazes me how different each one looks & yet they are the same.

Two Finishes

I finished the Emerald Jewel quilt by adding a stop red border followed by the piano keys.

This one measures 56 by 76 inches.

I've had this "ugly" fabric for a very long time, looked at it once in a while but nothing came to mind until I was working on the Emerald quilt. I remembered that the ugly fabric had touches of green so off I went.

I pulled some duller greens and black strips and got down to sewing.

After laying out my design I knew that I'd want to do a border and decided to continue the diamond into the border.

I am very happy with the results. Lots of extra designs within this quilt top.

It measures 45 inches square.

Green Lover

I love the color green and tend to purchase fabrics of varied shades of green. So it was easy to choose fabric strips for my latest string quilt.

I need to make 18 more rectangle blocks before I sew the rows together. After which, I'll make a piano key border from the leftover greens sprinkling in a few zebra and red fabrics.

String Tote

I made this tote last week before heading off to my Bible study class. You can read about it on my BLOG. Just scan down a few posts where I've written about the struggles and figuring I had to do.

Bull's Eye

 

This little quilt is the end of a run of string quilts that were stuck in my head and needed out....LOL

The blocks are one 4 1/2 inches and the quilt measures 42 inches square.....and no, I haven't been able to use up those scraps.....they just seem to multiply....sigh!

A Diagonal Finish

All done and loving the results!!

Final measurements are

62 by 82 inches. I even managed to miter the piano key border. Yea!

Think Diagonal String

This 9 by 12 inch string is the first of many that I'm sewing up to use of some of those pesky useful scraps.

To see more of my progress, pop over to my blog, Ravelly1.

Strung Out Finale

Still Strung Out

Sorry about the blurry photo, I don't know what's up with that.  So this is what I have so far. Notice the second tan colored star. I planned that.......LOL.  The top measures 32 by 45 inches at this time. Next, I'll add a stopping border. I have a great barbed wire fabric, followed by...... I can't believe I'm about to say this...... piano keys...... SIGH!

Strung Out - The Cowboy Way

Just when I thought I'd never get to sew again (family health issues), I found myself out in the old sewing studio with an idea in my head and western fabric spread everywhere. In other words, this quilt is going to have strips of my cowboy/western fabrics in it.  This type of quilt is a great way to get rid of use some of those hard-to-know-what-to-do-with fabrics.
I found some scraps of muslin, an old cardboard folder and started the ball rolling.

First, I made a template from my cardboard. Really, I just cut out an elongated triangle. Then I cut another one about a fourth larger. 

Next, I traced the smaller triangle to one corner of each piece of muslin using a mechanical  which measures 8 1/2 inches square.  This will work with any size you choose. 

Now, with this stage, I had to do a small bit of trial and error. That's the reason I'm pointing to the "BACKSIDE" of the fabric. In order for your elongated triangle to fit properly on the muslin (OMG, did I almost ruin a FQ on this one...LOL) one must..... must cut from the wrong side of the fabric. So there is no mistake of the wrong angle. 

So, if you are going to try this, please take the time to cut all the triangles from the wrong side.

This is how it will look when you're done.

Oooops! I didn't have a photo of the rectangle that I cut before I cut it in half on the diagonal. Sorry, but just imagine those two triangles back together.

Now comes a bit of instant gratification.  

Put a dab of fabric glue on muslin then place fabric triangle right side up over the pencil mark and press to hold in place.

This is a view of 4 blocks, not sewing together by any means, to demonstrate what the quilt is going to look like towards the center of the joined blocks.

My next step will be to give these blocks a little pop by adding the first strip which will be a black 1 1/2 inch strip doing to sew, flip and press method we quilters know so well.

I'm also planning to do a secondary design but that a surprise for later.  In other words, I haven't figured that out yet... LOL

I am so excited to be sewing again.

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!

Finished and Done

 I auditioned two different corners: the scrappy look and the more solid look.

 I chose the more solid look.

I love the way things turned out. The whole process of digging out locating the ruler, sewing up the scrappy strips, drafting the edge pieces and auditioning fabrics to make the connection to each block.

It reminds me of my grandma's quilts.

Final measurement 56 1/2 inches square and I don't think I'll be bordering the quilt..... LOL

Kite Drama

 I was combing through my stash of books, magazines and quilt patterns when I ran across the pattern you see in the background. It was then and only then that I remembered I had purchased the special ruler to go with it. Great! I have an abundance of scraps and strips of fabrics.... this would be a perfect time to start another quilt.

 Several hours later, I had enough strips sewn together to begin the next step....

I cut seven sets of eight kites that are needed to make a block or at least the block that I was interested in.
This kite shape has so many possibilities and I was so excited to see all the various fabric placements.

The first block option is the great looking design and the beauty of it is I don't have to match seams or pin anything.

Block option 2 is this four pointed star that I placed on an audition tone-on-tone fabric.

I then realized that if I was going with option 1, it needed something to square the block up.  After a couple of frustration hours of drafting, I came up with a workable template which needed to be reversible.

This is how the kite looks with the template fabrics sewn on. I went with the scrappy look because I really need to get rid of use up that large basket of scraps.

And that brings me to my next dilemma...... LOL.... back to the old drafting paper..... to be continued.