Friday, March 28, 2014

Scrappy Strings Quilt


This was another quilt I finished back in January and photographed when we were in Florida that month. It was a gift for my oldest brother and his family. I started on it at the end of November, just picking up some scraps on a whim and making string blocks on 8.5" squares of printer paper as foundations. 




The technique is similar to the string quilt in this book, only I changed the size of the blocks and I cut my strips to all different widths without measuring, some of them at slightly wonky angles. That really made this project go fast for such scrappy quilt.


I'm not 100% happy with the back. I wish I had made those pieced strips just as scrappy as the front blocks, but I was lazy and just chopped up 4-5 fat quarters to fill the space I needed. The gray is actually a tiny sketchy black and white print from Carolyn Friedlander's Botanics collection. I love that choice, but it would have looked a little better with more colors against it. No biggie. Just one of those choices you get  a better perspective on after everything is finished. 

The binding is a deep purple Joel Dewberry woodgrain print. 



The quilting is a little hard to see in places, and equally hard to do in those places. I did dense straight lines that crossed thru the solid star. But then in the leftover areas I free-motion quilted in scallops growing out from the star. By the time I got to the edges of the quilt, I was doing lines of scallops that got way too wide to be done very easily, but in the end it worked out. I like the contrast in the two quilting styles.




I can't remember exactly, but I think it ended up about 60" square. My sister-in-law especially appreciated the gift because she has started to really get into sewing too, even a little quilting. It's always fun to see someone new take up your obsession! My younger brother's wife is also a very good quilter, so between us and my mom, we somehow ended up with a family full of sewing women. One day when we aren't scattered all over the country we'll have girly sew dates together :)

In the meantime, my mom and I will be going to Sewdown Nashville together in just a couple weeks! I'm getting really excited about the workshops (seriously, check out our AMAZING teachers!) and fun social sewing time. Anyone else going??



14 comments:

  1. it's beautiful!!!! and have fun at the sewdown, sounds amazing! So jealous too that you are going with your mom. My mom refuses to sew anymore (she claims it hurts her neck - whatever!!!) ;)

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  2. Strings are so fun! I really like how you featured the star

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  3. really pretty! I like the mix of quilting techniques

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  4. This is awesome! The colors are amazing and I love how the star pops :) Totally beautiful.

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  5. Very pretty! Appreciate your telling all the nitty-gritty!

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  6. i didn't know you were going to Sewdown. I can't wait to read about it here. Sooooo jealous! Danielle

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  7. Totally love this! You're so good with color, darlin', Good stuff.

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  8. i love your scrappy stuff. shoulda had you give me lessons on what makes a successful scrappy quilt when you were here. so you probably need to come back.

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  9. I like it. Usually strings are the dominant feature--great idea to mix it up with the star.

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  10. Such a pretty quilt. I haven't seen a negative design made with strings before. Brilliant idea! Also, I got your blocks today. Wahoo! Thanks friend. I'm super glad to hear that you're enjoying yourself!

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  11. Jessica, this quilt is so gorgeous , and I can't wait to spend the weekend at Sewdown with you!

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  12. The quilt looks great! I love scrappy quilts.

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  13. Seriously stunning Jess! I love the mint star, What is the fabric? I actually bought that color wood grain after you posted it on Instagram, you have great taste 😉❤

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  14. Great quilt. I especially love the star color and the quilting in it.

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