Strings, strings, glorious strings

Today we start a journey through some (no doubt) fabulous string quilt projects. My personal favourite string quilt shape is the diamond string. It is almost as simple as the regular or standard string quilt but has one little wrinkle. 

This is my wee diamond strings quilt. It is all quilted, labelled, washed and ready for donation. At approximately 30" x 40" it is relatively small but would be great for tucking around baby for a walk in the stroller.

To get started on this you need a foundation. I prefer some really thin cotton. Old sheets work well for this or some prefer muslin. I have not yet been converted to telephone book pages although I have tried them. 

For the diamond string your base shape is a rectangle. Mine for this project were 7" x 10". I have made doll sized ones using 5" x 7" (and downsized the centre string). Any size will do as long as it is  definitely a rectangle to start with.

The trick: Half of the starter strings must reach up to the right and half of them must reach up to the left. 

On these two backings you can see the drawn centre line for the string placement. One goes towards the top right and one goes towards the top left.

I just use the lines on my cutting mat to line things up. If I had used the rectangles in the diagram above with my white centre strings the pencil line would show through and you don't want that! My centre strings are 2" x 14" for this size. That gives overlap at each end. You can make your centre string a different width but it since it highlights the pattern so make it something a good size. Also note that the centre string should contrast with  the strings you are going to use.

Then you start stitching strings in place right sides together, using a 1/4" seam. I press after each added string. That stops me from sitting for hours in the same position and it makes the my work neater. Some people finger press.

When you have covered all of your foundation your block is ready to trim. The one on the left is what it looks like from the right side the one on the right is what it looks like from the wrong side. 

Once trimmed this is what the blocks look like. I try to make certain my centre string is centred when I am doing the trimming for each block.

Next step artfully arrange your blocks and stitch them together. At this stage I will often use a 3/8" or even a 1/2" seam and press it open because there is a lot of bulk if you press to one side.

To quilt these I follow the centre string. One a good day I would go on each side of the string and on the vertical and horizontal block lines. I hope this thumbnail sketch of how I do diamond string quilts answers most of your questions and that you will give them a try. Piecefully, Joanne

Please stop by the other bloggers who are on this fun Blog Hop to see what they have to offer. We all have strings lets get using them. 

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

MooseStash Quilting

keepsake moments

Just Sew Quilter

Vroomans Quilts

That Fabric Feeling

Quilted Delights

Life in Scrapatch

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

Using my scraps for pattern testing

This table topper made hardly a dint in the blues. The logs are cut much smaller than I normally cut for scrap storage. My normal cuts are 5", 2 1/2" and 1 1/2". I leave those in strips and box similar colours together. I had to use untrimmed chunks for this assignment. The pattern is called Log cabin Twist and this is just one of a few variations illustrated in the pattern.
Over this past month I have been trying to tidy up a little as the sewing room has managed to get out of control. I am inching closer to some level of organization. But it is an ongoing battle.
Piecefully, Joanne
Linking with Cynthia for Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More fun than Housework (here)

Totally Triangle Quiltalong

Every year Quilt alongs come and quilt alongs go. I look at them and think oh that would be fun or that looks interesting. Well this year I signed on for the Totally Triangle Quilt along. You need to buy the pattern for this quilt along and it is available through Craftsy. I cannot tell you just how much fun I am having making these different triangles. I decided to go with a constant Kona Bone for my background and then use scraps for the colour. These are my first six triangles and they are not going to be set like this for the final project, they just wanted to play together for their photo op.
It is not too late to join the fun. Sheila Christenson, also known as the Mystery Quilter has written the pattern. She lives in New Zealand and owns a quilt shop there. Check out her web site. (here)
Piecefully, Joanne

Linking with Cynthia for Oh Scrap! (here)

Looking forward to Quilt Guild today

Today is Quilt Guild in Kincardine and since the roads were bad last month and we didn't get there I am really looking forward to today. It is the anniversary meeting. I did not live in this part of the province when the guild was formed so do not know many of the people who started the group but I am certainly glad they did.
As part of the program today there is going to be a flimsy parade. Now that is something I could buy into. I have decided to take the flimsy shown here. It is a hexagon sampler I did as a test for Teresa Down Under back in the fall. she has it for sale now as a pattern. It was a lot of fun to put together and totally done from my scrap buckets. Over the summer we did some organizing and the purples and the greens did not get finished so they are each in a bucket. They seem to fluff up when you use something from the bucket as the total amount of fabric does not appear to be reduced.
Piecefully, Joanne


Linking up with Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts for  Let's Be Sewcial (here)

Playing with some scraps to make a mini

Janice and Jen got together and set up this little mini blog hop featuring the Shadow Box quilt. I got my top finished but like a lot these days it isn't quilted yet. I have admired this style of quilt top for some time. Making the mini allowed me to experiment and I must say I do not know why I delayed so long to make one. These are quite easy to construct. The original instructions were written up by Debora at Studiodragonfly (here). I will confess I studied her directions and them made some efficiencies to allow a bit more chain piecing. My mini measures 17 1/2" x 21 1/2". The coloured squares started at 3" square.
The boys have been here a lot in August. So not much has been accomplished. I have done several test quilts for some new to me designers and really enjoy that part of the quilting journey. The only difficult part is keeping everything secret for what seems like forever until the pattern is released. By that time it is such old news. My sewing room has been excavated and it is nice to be able to walk across the room and not around piles of stuff to get around the room. I am looking forward to regular routines starting up now that summer is almost over. Well it is over for the kids. We retired teachers tend to enjoy this weekend a lot more than we used to.

Please take time to visit the other bloggers who signed up to participate in this mini blog hop and see how they interpreted the directions.

The other bloggers are:Jen Rosin at A Dream and a Stitch

Janice Holton at colorcreatingandquilting

Debora Exum at Studio Dragonfly

Amanda Everest at Quiltologie

Susan Arnold at Quilt Fabrication

Bonnie Stapleton at Institches with Bonnie

Jennifer Fulton at Inquiring Quilter

Jennifer Strauser at Dizzy Quilter

Joanne Harris at Quilts by Joanne

Anja Clyke at Anja Quilts

Mary Schuberg at Needled Mom

Piecefully, Joanne

Linking up with Lorna for Lets Be Sewcial (here)

Scraps as therapy

This was a strong motivator for me to get back to my sewing machine and working. I had to be able to bend my knee enough to sit at the table. I am happy to say, I reached that point about two weeks ago and have been stitching ever since. Mind you it is in short bursts of time and then I need to move around a bit. Guess I need to build up my tolerance again.
I do not remember who gave me these scraps. Or most of them. I cut them all to 1 1/2" squares and added some from my scrap heap that I thought would work well with the core group. I stitched them together Leader and Ender style. First one I saw as light with one I saw as dark. Pressing all to the dark. Then those were joined into four patches and then sixteen patches. Once we were at that stage I let them talk to me from the design floor. I had 60 sixteen patches which would have made a really long skinny quilt. So I went with using 56 sixteen patches and kept four for corner blocks. One of my friends drove me to the local quilt shop and I picked out this border fabric. I will be happy to be able to drive myself places after tomorrow's check in with the surgeon.
I have done a lot of reading in the last few weeks but am anxious to get back to doing something more hands on. Piecefully, Joanne
Linking with Cynthia (here) for another session of Oh Scrap!

A finish is a good thing, even if it is a small finish

This little doll quilt is ready to go in the mail for its new owner. The pink squares were all 2 1/2" pieces. The blue beside each pink square came from a bag of 1" strips someone gave me at quilt guild. I don't remember who. The inner border is scrappy pinks and the binding is also scrappy pinks. It continues to amaze me how many quilt tops (and quilts) I make with pink in them when I don't recall buying any quantity of pink fabric. I do keep it separate when it is given to me so maybe that is how I end up with so much.
It looks like a busy week ahead so it remains to be seen how much sewing gets done. I have a test quilt with an August 14 deadline so I suspect that will take up any stitching time I can find. Piecefully, Joanne
Linking up with Cynthia's Oh Scrap! at www.quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com

I don't think I have ever met a blue I didn't like

And today I can also say I am loving the blue/green colours. At the end of May when we were at the retreat in Tobermory a quilter who was getting out of quilting offered us her fabric. We all had a great time. When I can pick I go for the blue/green/purple side of things and sometimes brown. Last night I prewashed all the blues and today all the blue/greens are on the clothes line. The blues are pressed and I will cut them as the day goes by. The hard part for me is taking them from a big bag of stuff to something I can use. This time I am going to cut 10", 5",2 1/2" and 1 1/2" strips. Gudrun Erla is starting a quilt along on her new Facebook group that uses left over Layer Cake pieces, hence the need for 10" squares. I don't buy layer cakes as they are terribly expensive here.
The peas are essentially done, the boys are returning tomorrow, and summer is half over. What more can I say. Piecefully, Joanne

Linking up with Cynthia's Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than housework (here)

Oh Scrap! for the end of March

At the last Sunset Quilters Quilt Guild meeting one of my "regulars" handed me a bag of scraps. Inside were all these lovely triangle pieces. Stop me from myself. I pulled them out and set them beside the machine to sew together as leaders and enders. She had just cut the pieces off  so they were not all uniform in size nor did they have a smooth cut edge. I had been sewing some 1 1/2" squares together and making them into little four patchs to set in the middle square of a square in a square block and the light bulb went on. If I made little pinwheel blocks, squared them up to 2 1/2" then  I could do the same thing. So the sequence above shows the few remaining triangle pieces, a few HST's, One pinwheel block that has been squared to 2 1/2" and then a contrast set of triangles to make a final square in a square block. I will admit I did have the nerve to ask her if she had any strips left that I might be able to use for the outer triangles. I needed 2 2 1/2" squares for each block. She had a couple and I rummaged through my stash. I think I will end up with a nice little quilt out of this exercise.
I taught another class for the new quilt shop this week and took in a sample quilt for another class that will be happening in April. Probably just a little busier than I really need to be these days. Piecefully, Joanne
Linking up with Cynthia at quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com  on Oh Scrap! Sunday afternoon

HSTeria my small contribution

Vicki over at Field Trips in Fiber-Adventures in Quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art (here) has been running HSTeria for a couple of months. I must admit my half square triangle supply is out of this world but I tend to make pinwheels and more pinwheels. Her contributions and design suggestions are very good and definitely worth having a look at if you too have a large supply of HST waiting to be made into something.
This little baby quilt is 25" by 32". I was given a milk bag full of triangles. Note I said triangles not half square triangles. And for any American followers Canadians buy their grocery store milk in 4 Litre bags. So first of all I had to sew all the triangles together to made a pile of half square triangles. I did that task as Leaders and Enders and tried to  press them as they were created. The Half Square Triangles were 1 3/4" when sewn together. When I was visiting friends for a little retreat I dumped the bag of HST onto the table after dinner and we all sorted them into like bundles. Then I sewed them into the pinwheels and arranged them into a small quilt. There are 130 pinwheel blocks or 520 HST in the quilt. I just stitched in the ditch to quilt it. They served as a good distraction and I do get a boost from making something out of nothing but I am happy it is all done, labelled and ready to donate to my Scrapbag group when we start up again in the fall. Piecefully, Joanne

Starting something new and using my tools

I started Freckled Whimsey's Diamond in the Rough Quilt Along. Don't really know why, the design just appealed to me. She is using 3 1/2" squares but since I had previously cut a pile of scraps into 5" strips I decided to work with them. So my squares are 4 1/2" and I am currently squaring up my HST to be 4 1/2". This is the biggest workout my new BlocLoc ruler has had and I must say I am pleased with the results. I am also using my rotating mat. There are 80 HST blocks to square and I am just over half way there. Piecefully, Joanne

Leaders and enders a slow but steady way to build a quilt

Terry over at Terry's Treasures (here) is hosting a Quilt Along titled Goodnight Irene.Today marks the beginning of month two. The blocks in the picture are my start on the project. Terry has suggested using 2 1/2" squares and 4 1/2" squares. Since I had what seemed like a limitless supply of 2" squares I down sized my second square to 3 1/2". I do like the look of the project and it is turning my 2" squares into something useful. Piecefully, Joanne

Sew Scraps Along a new scrap quilt along

Pleasant Home is having another Sew Scraps Along. She is featuring inspirational posts and tutorials. Today was the first tutorial. What a scrap buster! I am looking forward to what else she has instore. I spent a few hours yesterday taming my red scraps. Well not all my red scraps but a laundry baskets worth. I soaked them first and then set some of the "bleeders" with salt. Then lightly dried them, pressed them all and then cut them into 5" strips, 2 1/2" strips, 1 1/2" strips and a few 2" strips. I want to make a scrappy red and white Jacob's Ladder and that will use the 5" and the 2 1/2" strips. I might do another mini lasagna with the 1 1/2" or save them until I have another colour to put with them. Joanne

Heartstring Monday

Monday afternoon was a great sewing afternoon. This is one quilt assembled from the three sets of blocks that were completed. I still need to quilt it. Joanne

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

As the beginning of 2011 rolls closer many experienced bloggers are throwing out challenges to tempt us for 2011. Judy L has two or three. I am going to attempt Becky's 50 Quilts from Stash Challenge and Soscrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I believe the stash is healthy enough to take on both of these challenges. Time will tell. Jo