I didn't believe it could happen, but the scrap bin is empty!

I've witnessed a minor miracle: my bin of dark strings is empty!

For the last four weeks, I've been working on this rectangular string quilt.

My guidelines were: 1.5 inch neutral strip on the diagonal,

bright strings on one side, and black prints on the other.

I had lots of strings and small scraps,

and I even cut a few strips off of yardage at the end for variety.

Check out my process at the String Thing Along Blog.

Here's a closer look.

I made 15 of these diamonds, 60 blocks in total.

It measured 60 inches wide and 54 inches high,

and the piano key borders brought it up to about 65 inches long.

Many of the bright scraps and strings

(see what I did there?)

came from cutting 2.5 inch strips for these mini-trip around the world blocks.

My guild is making blocks in brights and whites

for a charity quilt or two.

Three of us made these 36 blocks last month.

And yes, I know there's a block laid out wrong.

We haven't sewn any blocks together yet.

So I'm proof it can happen. We can run out of scraps.

But I'm not worried. I can always make more!

Bright strings

I spent an hour sewing bright strings

Into six 8.5 inch blocks with a white centre

For a bed quilt my guild is making together   It's going to look great!

Wednesday wall in progress

Trying out some sashing and border options on my big string stars.

I'm thinking the string border isn't helping much.

I may cut up that big leaf print vertically into border and sashing.

Stay tuned.

Transformation

I transformed these blocks on my wall to this:

 or this:

by cutting up donated blocks into HST finishing at 6 inches

with my Go cutter.

Some of the blocks had wonky proportions,

and none of them worked together,

so this is a good solution.

I'm still working on a better design,

but I'm leaning toward the big stars

with light blocks in the corners

and each star separated by a sashing.

The stars would finish at 24 inches,

so I would need six to make a quilt.

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network

and Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesdays

Freshly pieced strings

These string blocks are hot off the sewing machine.

My guild contributed some 6.5 inch string blocks, 

with brights/mediums and light strings

and I made enough to get 20 12.5 inch diamonds.

I put them together in colourways

and threw them on the design wall this morning.

I've already moved some around since this photo.

I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced

and The Needle and Thread Network.

Monday design wall

A string donation quilt growing on my design wall. 

My guild members are contributing string blocks for this quilt, 

inspired by my bathroom floor.

I'm linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times.

Big finish times four!

I've just finished putting together four string quilts.

All measure about 60 by 80,

and are made of string blocks measuring 6 by 12 inches

 gathered from local quilters.

Each quilt took 77 blocks,

which means I received more than 300, and I still have a few left.

We busted lots of scraps for these quilts.

 Thanks to all my in person (vs. blogging) quilting friends

who contributed blocks.

Thanks to Bonnie and Val for their long arming services. 

I quilted the other two.

And thanks to Em and Cheryl for donating yardage for the backs.

 

Blue/grey colourway

 



Yellow/orange, inspired by those bright orange blocks.

the leftover strip quilt

 

 

the pink/purple one.

We decided to keep the girly colours in one quilt.

 

Here they are hanging out together in the balcony of my church,

which was the best place to get good shots.

Hanging out together on the pews

And some details.

 

These quilts will be donated to the emergency shelter of a local charity.

I'm about to write a tutorial on how to make these blocks.

For now, check out this post.

 

I'm linking up with Sarah and Amanda  and TGIFF.

 

Double Friday finish!

At a retreat last weekend, I  worked on two string quilts.

I squared off and bound the top left one

and quilted and bound the bottom one.

These are two of four I've put together for a local charity,

using 6 by 12 inch string blocks from my local quilting friends.

My guild friend Bonnie long armed the yellow and orange one

in an edge to edge pattern,

more visible if you double click the close-up below.

I packed up my Juki for the retreat, and powered through the blue quilt,

using my walking foot for straight-line stitching on either side of the vertical seams.

I freemotioned designs in each column,

inspired by motifs in Christina Cameli's 

First Steps to Free Motion Quilting.

Christina's blog tutorial improved my fmq skills, 

and her book is fabulous.

Yesterday I took the three finished quilts out for a photo shoot on the lawn.

(The fourth is pieced, but not yet quilted.)

We're still snow-free in Winnipeg, although snow is sure to come soon.

Here you can see that each quilt has a slightly different colourway:

From top: yellow/orange; blue/red; pink/purple.

I'm linking up with Sarah and Amanda.

Thursday strings

 

My scrappy string blocks are now a flimsy

and I like it much better.

These blocks were sitting in my parts drawer for several years

and I feared they were too dull.

I had used up many years of scraps with these, and lots are not to my taste.

But with a string quilt, anything goes, and now that's its together

and has two borders, I like it much better.

Since I sewed the string blocks on foundations,

the top has extra weight,

so I'm backing this with fleece and putting it on the giveaway pile.

Thursday strings

 

I'm preoccupied today,

so I decided to get out some string blocks and just sew.

These are mostly old fabrics with an undertone of grey.

I'm considering a border.

What would brighten it up?

Spring strings

I'm linking this to Rachel's Festival of Strings because

most of my recent quilts have been strings.

And there's a few more in my future as well,

similar to this one, which measures 60 by 80.

For the past few months, I've been collecting string pieced strips measuring 6 by 12 inches

from my local quilting friends to support a local emergency shelter.

I've been overwhelmed by string blocks,

and I think I have enough to make four quilts for the shelter.

Other folks have generously donated backings and the batting.

I've divided the string blocks into colour families.

This one features lots of pink strings, and a pink binding and backing.

Not only have we pulled together to support a local cause,

I've also been spreading the delights of making string quilts

among my friends.

My mother has sewn up 30-year-old scraps into 300 inches of string blocks!

I machine quilted this one with my Juki -- straight lines on either side of the seams

and freemotion squiggles and leaves and spirals in each of the columns.

This is the first large quilt I've freemotioned,

and I've figured out a better arrangement of tables and ironing boards

to support the quilt as I free motion.

I used a yellow variegated Aurifil thread on top for the quilting lines.

Here's a photo of the back, which shows the quilting lines.

Thanks Rachel for your Festival of Strings.

Please visit my group string blog, String Thing Along for some more great string quilts.

Has anyone seen my rotary cutter?

It must be somewhere underneath all my fabric, but I can't find it.

 

I forgot to sign up for the scrap exchange over at 15 minutes play,

but it turns out I didn't have to.

My neighbour gave me a huge bag of goodies from her SIL.

It's a bit overwhelming, but a couple of hours of ironing

in front of the TV resulted in this:

I sorted it out into strips for, squares, and bigger bits.

Lots to play with here.

Meanwhile, I've been collecting 6 by 12 inch string blocks from local quilting friends.

We're making several quilts for the emergency shelter program of a local agency.

At my guild meeting last week, I got another 100 or so strips,

and so we started sorting them out by colour families.

This one has a pink theme, and I'm planning on

making one with black strips, and another in the green family.

 

 

Design wall Monday in Winnipeg

I've got a bunch of blocks on the wall that will soon leave my home.

This message made with letters and a little freemotion embroidery

is going to Cuba as part of a prayer flag project.

These 12.5 inch string blocks are headed to California

where Jeanne is making donation quilts with contributions

from String Thing Along folks.

And these made fabric blocks may be part of my tea towel challenge

over at 15 Minutes Play.

But for now, they're all hanging out together on my wall.

I'm linking to Judy's Design Wall Mondays.

Sending a quilty hug

Gotta love faces like this!

My two nieces wrapped themselves in the group string quilt

we made over at String Thing Along blog.

I'm hoping this quilt brings as much joy

to whoever eventually receives it

through a local foundation to help children with cancer.

To sash or not to sash, that is the question.

I sewed these bricks together several years back,

planning to make a traditional Chinese coins quilt,

but I couldn't find the right sashing.

So it sat in my drawer,

and now I'm in a place where I want to finish it quickly.

What do you think about no sashing

with the seams not matching?

Or how about inserting blocks from my parts drawer randomly?

And what's a good size for a throw?

Since this is on my  portable design wall (aka flannel backed picnic tablecloth)

I'm linking up to Judy's design wall Mondays.

Friday finishes and one from Tuesday

I made two table mats from hand-dyed fabric

for a Mother's Day gift for my mother.

My friend Cheryl gave me leftovers triangles from a quilt she recently finished.

All the fabrics were hand-dyed by Cheryl in my mom's quilt studio.

Except the back, which is a white on whilte print

that I overdyed purple.

I like the crochet effect on it.

After I gave them to my mother, she said that the fabric came from the nursery curtains

we made 18 years ago.

I know I still have those, so I think I see more dyeing in the future.

And in case you missed it, my big finish this week

was the Anything Goes quilt made with blocks

from members of the String Thing Along blog.

I'm linking up with Sarah and Find a Friend Friday.