Three quilts and a million pieces

I'm showing off two quilts for the price of one today.

In February, I asked my local quilting friends to put together

6 inch blocks from their blue, green and neutral strings

We planned to make one charity quilt measuring 60 by 80

but there was more than enough for two.

The second one measures 57 inches square

The bigger one has an inner border made from only dark blue fabrics.

My guild friend Karen was sick on the day we put the quilt together,

so she made her own from blue, green, and yellow strips

using the same inner border idea.

I've been stringing along with 10 quilting friends.

I put out a call for help with a string quilt 

in greens and blues and neutrals.

A week ago we gathered to put it together,

sewing blocks from a pile of strings.

The blocks finish at 5.5 inches.

It has a basket weave layout of 11 by 15 blocks

with an interior border of dark blue blocks.

Here's a test layout.

I've moved around some blocks so there are no dark bits

touching the border.

Here's a view of it sewn together.

A week later it is basted and ready to quilt.

Stay posted!

Special Collection

I've been collecting what most would say are fabrics that you just wouldn't buy for your stash. I love these strange fabrics such as pebbles, bricks, tree bark, wood panels and so on. So if you're wondering what to do with some of those difficult fabrics, never fear, put them in a string quilt.
Here's a string quilt that I made from some of them. I dressed up the borders with a little applique. This is one of my favorite quilts. It measures roughly 54 inches square.

Ugly?

Here's my string challenge block!  I tried to pick out some really ugly mismatched fabrics for my block, but I honestly don't think it turned out that bad.  There's no doubt in my mind that all these "ugly" blocks will make a beautiful scrappy quilt for charity!

Different strokes and a string block challenge

Brenda here posting this for my friend Terry, who couldn't get Blogger to work for her.

She made this set of scrappy diagonal string squares.

I like the consistent dark diagonal strip.

Here's what she said about them:
I took these squares to coffee break at work to show to a quilting friend. One of the other women at coffee exclaimed, "That is soooo ugly!!" Uhm.  "Look," she says, "Those colours don't even go together ....and those strips are different widths."

Very amusing. There are no convincing her that this was a string quilt made from scraps and BELIEVE ME, it will all work out in the end.

I haven't decided if I'll just make a few more squares and run them together or if I'll put a border around groups of four. Wait and see!

 This is Brenda again.

For the record, I love diagonal string blocks, the scrappier the better. And believe me Terry, these colours do GO together. It's going to be a great quilt.

Just to prove that anything goes when it comes to string blocks, I'm proposing a little challenge.

1.Make an 8.5 inch string block with a black diagonal like Terry did. Please sew it on an 8 inch muslin foundation so it has a 1/4 inch seam allowance around it. That eliminates extra bulk when I join the blocks.
2. Use the ugliest (to borrow a word from Terry's colleague) fabrics in various widths.

3. Post your pictures here.

4, Pop the block in the mail to me and I'll collect them to make a charity quilt.

(I already have 48 string blocks made from a previous project, and these can go with those.)

5. Let's show Terry's friend we don't make ugly quilts when we use up our scraps.

6. Deadline: April 30.

7. Leave me a comment here and I'll send you my address.

And just wondering:  What would the rest of you string quilters have said to Terry's colleague?