Sunday 23 April 2017

Strings and String Blocks

After organizing my stash into an IKEA shelving unit, you can read more about that here, I realized I had a fair amount of strings. Now what to do with all those strings.
I am making a quilt for Hands2Help run by Confessions of a Fabric Addict, this is the second year I will be participating in this charity quilt challenge. You can see the quilt I made and donated to Ronald MacDonald House last year here. I will again be making and donating a quilt to Ronald MacDonald House.
Back to my string over abundance and what to do with them. Strings and string blocks go hand in hand.

I sorted the strings by colour. Then set to work using them up. The idea was to use up all or the vast majority of them.

all sorted and ready to go
I had an old phone book and decided to stitch my strings to the pages of it, some people use muslin. I didn't want an added layer or the added cost. I pulled the pages out of the phone book and squared them up to 7 1/2 inch squares, my book was 8'' x 10''.

laying out strings
After sewing the strings to the pages and before trimming I gave them a light spray starch on the fabric side to help control those bias edges. The paper I put in my compost bin, it will break down and helps to control any odours.

before trimming 

Some of the fabric strings date back to the 90's. The size of the strings were anywhere from 1'' to 2 inches and various lengths. I used some older 2 1/2'' strips, the newer ones I kept for another project.

lighter string blocks

 
darker blocks

I made 80 blocks and these are the strings I have left, they didn't seem to go down at all. I think overnight the fabric/sewing fairy has been adding to them.

after 80 blocks the strings appear to be growing

I had some great help laying out blocks.

my 'little helper'
This layout used 56 blocks, the flimsy is 49 1/2'' by 56 1/2'' which makes a nice size quilt. I don't think I am going to add a border. 

 I can see a few blocks I should have moved for better colour flow

Next up quilting I am trying to decide whether to do straight line, wavy lines or an allover loop. What would you do?

I will be linking up to 








12 comments :

  1. Very nice quilt Cyndy. It's amazing how those fabric scraps just never seem to go down. I'd probably go with straight line quilting myself.

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    1. Sorry Cindy I always spell your name wrong....one of my best quilting buddies spells her's with the two ys.

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  2. I love this!! I always find it amazing what can be created with scrap strips. Your idea of using phone book pages is pretty brilliant! I don't thing there is a wrong way to quilt this...any one you pick will be perfect!

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  3. What a great way to use your strips and isn't it amazing how they seem to multiply instead of disappearing when you use them?

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  4. Love string quilts! beautiful quilt!

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  5. I think the strings look like we haven't made a dent because as we paw through them they fluff up. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! The quilt looks fabulous.

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  6. Oh Cindy it turned out beautifully! Saw your helper on Instagram ;-) And I KNOW about the string piles NOT going down...I myself pulled out a bunch of multi-coloured strings for a H2H quilt, but haven't started anything, just drew my plan for the 2-block layout. I have that one oh-so-soft-looking green floral with the pink flowers on it! Made my sister a runner for her new house in 2000. Think there's still some of it around, egad.

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  7. These string blocks are gorgeous together. I'd be tempted to just do simple wavy lines across it. All those prints are the star of the show. Your little helper looks like he is having a very good time :)

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  8. Scraps are like rabbits - they multiply, multiply, multiply! LOL I agree with Tish, wavy lines so as not to distract from the prints.

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  9. Oh so pretty! Isn't it amazing how big of a quilt we can make with just a few scraps? Thank you for sharing this inspiring scrap project on Midweek Makers!

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  10. Such a lovely and fun quilt! I also love string quilts! Except for needing additional background fabric, I have made two bonus quilts from one project! This never fails to amaze me! Thank you for sharing!

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  11. Your blocks are so pretty but your little helper is an absolute cutie!!! Wavy lines are my staple quilting technique. I cannot believe that you have a plan even for the discarded paper bits. You rock!!!

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