Block by block it's growing!

Two lively blocks from Ginny in Brooklyn came in the mail today, along with a postcard of a quilt show in Brooklyn this weekend. If anyone sees a string quilt at this show, please share it here.
Thanks for contributing string blocks to this challenge quilt!

Using Border Fabric

Here's a way to use directional border fabric in a string block as the center strip.

I used scissors to cut the paisley print fabric you see into 13 1/2 inch strips and placed each one down the middle diagonally on 12 1/2 inch foundations of muslin.

I then did the sew, flip and press method, sewing darker fabrics of varied widths on one side of the paisley fabric and lighter tone-on-tones on the opposite side. 

Here you can see what four block look like with the paisley seeming to give a framed look.

 Here is the final quilt top measuring roughly 80 inches square.  I love this look and now always look for border fabrics in a different way.

It's growing on my wall

I've had fun opening my mail lately. Today I got a block from Julie, adding to the ones I got from Carol, LeeAnn, Leisa, V., and Helen. I made eight blocks, and today I  put them up on my design wall. I put a set of light ones in the middle, and I'm seeing how the quilt looks built around that.

I'm loving the variety of fabrics, colours, and strip widths here. If you still want to join in, leave a comment below.

I'm looking for 8.5 inch blocks, pieced on an 8 inch fabric foundation, with a black strip in the middle. Use a variety of colours and prints. Leave a comment below if you want to send it to me to make up in a charity quilt.

Just Like Potato Chips

I couldn't stop with just one! After I'd made this block:

I went through my stash and cut up more foundation squares. Two days later I had this on my design wall:

Now I'm scrounging around for more foundation fabrics and looking at my stash to see what else I can cut up into strings. These appear kind of dark to me; I want to throw in more light and color. Rearranging them will help to distribute the lighter blocks too. This is just how they ended up on the wall as I completed each block. I don't know whether to be grateful that Brenda finally moved me to try out this technique or to bemoan the fact that now I have even more projects I want to make!

Spring Strings

My mother-in-law just celebrated her 80th birthday and I racked my brain to try and come up with something to give to her that she would enjoy.  I finally decided on a mini makeover for her room at the nursing home.  I made two spring string table toppers, added a little pot of brightly colored silk flowers and some newly framed family photos and it all made for a very happy birthday indeed!

More frugal stringy goodness.....

This snuggle size string quilt was a 'playtime with scraps' project. Friend Betsy gave me the leftovers(mostly strings and strips) from her DDs graduation quilt. It's flannel, lattice and all.

I added bits from my flannel scraps and pieced these 6.5" blocks. No foundation, just sewed to each other as I picked them out. When the flannel ran out, I was finished! I added the lattice and tied the quilt. As often happens, make a quilt, and a need for one appears.

Friends of my DD were able to bring this darling red headed 3 yr. home to be their forever child. The quilt seemed perfect for him, and the purpose for making it came full circle.

Scraps, orphan blocks and adopted children are very, very dear to my heart. I have had all of them in my life since 1967 with the arrival our first child...by adoption, of course.

My Phone Book Quilt

Hi, I'm Lori in North Carolina and my blog is Talk is Cheap Quilts (http://talkischeapquilts.blogspot.com).  I love scrap quilts and string quilts, Tonya's letters and ANYTHING Gwen Marston does.

Here is a lap quilt that I finished recently.  I call it my Phone Book Quilt because I used phone book pages as my foundation (I find that I can sew straighter and faster with a foundation).  Here is just the top:

And here's a picture of the finished product with cat inspection in progress.

Here's a close-up so you can see the quilting.  I used a combination of tying and big stitch.  Oops, there are still a few basting threads in this picture, too!

Big strings

Thanks to LeeAnn, Helen, Leisa, and V. for the "ugly" string blocks

I found in my mailbox this week.

I'll post a picture this weekend of all of them on my design wall.

Here's a little string quilt inspiration: My friend Yvonne with her 50th birthday quilt, with string blocks submitted by her friends, and handquilting by Yvonne and more friends. Visit my blog for the details.

Scrappy String Thing Playtime...

I had a lot of fun during this 'playtime'. There were a bunch of flannel or brushed cotton strings and even a few strips in a box of donated Orphan blocks. I wondered what I could make with them, and if it would be enough for some sort of a top?

So I sewed, sewed and sewed. I kept going until the plastic bag was empty and this was the result.

I managed to make 25 blocks that are about 8.5". It happened totally without planning. If I had planned, I might have discarded the lightest ones. I'm finding I like string and crumb pieces better if you leave out things that read as white. The cream and lighter plaids seem to work for me, but not those white ones. I suppose it should have a border or borders added, but it will still be rather an odd size. Any suggestions? The top is about 40" square right now. It was not foundation pieced.

An earlier string quilt project...

I'm finding new inspiration as more stringy projects are getting posted ! It's very exciting to see what others are doing, and along that line, I decided to share an older string project. One picture(which should be first,but who knows?) is what the blocks look like. I chose to go with a dark navy/black center string. The widths varied from block to block. I added a variety of lights to one side, and assorted darks and jewel tones on the other. I was very pleased with the outcome. The blocks are 8.5" which was easy to work with, and I used mostly recycled fabrics for the foundation block.