Stitchin At Home: Strings

Wednesday, 27 March 2019

All about Strings

My string quilt project for the All About Strings Blog Hop hosted by Carla at Creatin' In the Sticks, is a pinwheel quilt.

Pinwheel String Quilt

I've been trying, notice I said trying to use up my strings. They seem to sprout overnight, every time I think I have them under control wham a bunch more appear.

7 1/2'' string blocks

I had a bunch of string blocks that I made more than a year ago. I pulled out any blocks that had pink in them no matter how little as long as it had pink it was good to go. I did have to make a few more, but I still have oodles of strings left.

matched up pair

I paired them up with a Boundless cream solid. Making sure I kept the line I wanted to sew to the correct corner see above photo. You could of course sew them to the other corner, just keep them all the same. I usually use my hera marker to mark these but it wouldn't have shown up for the photo. I stitched a 1/4'' on each side of the line. Cut on the centre line and press to the solid. I trimmed them to 6 1/2''.

sunshine you have been missed

I laid four HST's out in a pinwheel. I forgot to take a picture of the single block, which is a 12 1/2'' unfinished block. I laid them out in a 3 x 3 setting added a 4 1/2'' pink border.

you can see the sun back lighting the quilt.

all that crinkly goodness after washing

I quilted it using Aurifil #2410, it blended in well with all the different colours. I did some quick and simple loops allover.

This quilt will be used as a donation for H2H2019 Comfort quilts.

All About Strings Blog Hop Schedule

Monday, March 25th

Just Let Me Quilt

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Bumbleberry Stitches
QuiltFabrication

Seams to be Sew

DesertSky Quilting

Happy Cottage Quilter

quiltsbyjoanne

selina quilts

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Karrin's Crazy World

Tuesday, March 26th

Patchouli Moon Studio

ShirleyC

Wednesday, March 27th

Stitchin at Home

Alycia Quilts

Websterquilt

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Melva Loves Scraps

Words & Stitches

Den syende himmel
Patchwork Breeze
Domestic Felicity
The Quilted Snail

Thursday, March 28th

Cynthia's Creating Ark
The Joyful Quilter
Color Creating and Quilting
PamelaQuilts
Beaquilter
Two Maker Chicks
Days Filled With Joy
Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!

Creatin' in the Sticks

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.