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 

Main Crush Monday

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Sew Fresh Quilts

Medallion Quilt Month 4

This months block is the Rosebud Block. I choose this block due to my love of roses, this block dates back to the early 1900's.

Rosebud block

This is a 12 1/2'' unfinished or 12'' finished block.

Cutting:

Dark fabric:   A  2-  5'' x 5'' 

Medium Fabrics: B   4-  3'' x3''  

Background Fabric: C  4- 3'' x 3'' 

                                 D  4- 2 1/2'' x 6 1/2'' 

                                 E  2- 5'' x 5'' 

All Seam allowances are 1/4''.

Step 1:

1. On the back of both piece C draw a diagonal line from corner to corner.  See  1a.

2. Place the square on top of piece B. Sew a 1/4'' seam on both sides of the line. See  1b.

3. Cut on drawn line. See  1c.

4. Press HST's to dark side.

5. Trim the HST's to 2 1/2'' x 2 1/2''

6. Make 8.

diagram 1

Step 2:

1. Repeat Step 1 using pieces E and A.

2. Make 4.

Step 3:

1. Sew two 2 1/2'' x 2 1/2'' HST's together see diagram 2 below.

2. Make 4.

diagram 2

Step 4:

1. Sew the small HST unit to one 4 1/2'' x 4 1/2'' HST.

2. Sew a 2 1/2'' x 6 1/2'' to the HST unit. See diagram 3 below.

3. Make 4.

diagram 3

Step 5:

Sew all four of the above units together to make the rosebud block.

diagram 4

I would love to see any of the blocks you have made, you can post to Instagram using #stitchinathomemedallion2017 

 Craftsy (affliate link) hop around and check out their Easter sale.

Craftsy Sale

Star Baby Quilt A Finish

Every new baby should have a quilt to call their own. Right? Especially when the baby is a quilters granddaughter. On march 10th our 5th granddaughter Jamie was born she was 6lbs 3 0z. She is just as precious as our first. On to her quilt, I designed it in EQ7, I am slowly getting the hang of it....sometimes.

original  concept designed in EQ7 

On the design wall.

layout progress before a necessary design change

I did the quilty math, measured twice but the sewing gremlins came anyway. The star center went together smoothly but after that it was all downhill. I did change the circle in the center for an appliqued heart.

 

one would think these pieces when sewn together with a 1/4'' would align...nope! 

Aligning the rays that extended out from the star was a big problem that no amount of wine would help. The offset was a 1/4'' but when sewn together they DID not align. I used my seam ripper more times than I ever thought possible.  Sorry no photos as I was totally frustrated by then. Remade a couple pieces. After holding my breath and praying to the quilting god's it worked! A couple of design changes now needed to take place as I no longer had enough of the dark pink to continue as planned. 

star straight line quilting

The quilting I wanted to keep simple as I wanted the quilt to be cuddly and not over quilted. So simple straight lines following the star points and rays. I used Aurifil threads #'s 2021, 2440,5018 and 2730. Matching the threads to the fabric, made for more burying of threads but I'm glad I did it.

more lines and loopy l's

The first border got loopy l's, the dark pink more straight lines, which I repeated in the pink corners. The white corners I did figure 8's in.

I quilted her name in the white space at the bottom of the pinwheels

A look at the finished quilt. Even though I had to make some changes I like how it turned out.

 the design changes happened in the borders and the corners

Of course what baby quilt is complete without a picture of Jamie using using it.

enjoying some tummy time

For the backing I used an adorable print. I picked this up for less than $5/m.

back of quilt

I normally use Hobbs Heirloom Premium 80/20 Batting.  I have a wool allergy so that is about the only batting I haven't tried. What is your favourite batting?