Full string quilt

Taken just now on a sunny (and cold) day outside. I love making string quilts.  It's all about the color!

A new spring quilt!!

 I love making string quilts.  Anything goes, and they are mindlessly easy to do.  So this is the latest one.

Bardy's quilt

Bardy was a very dear friend. I was one of his opera dates, and we went to many concerts at Lincoln Center.   He passed away a year and a half ago.  I was so pleased when his wife asked me if I could make a quilt from his shirts.  And here it is!  The pictures don't do justice to the fabric, but trust me, the quilt is so lovely. 

As I was going through the shirts, I realized that turquoise was a main color.  So, Bardy, here you are.  I hope that Sue Ellen can curl up under your quilt and feel you there.

Bardy's Quilt

Bardy's wife asked me to make a quilt out of his shirts.  He passed away a year ago.  He was my dear friend, and I was one of his opera "dates".  So here are the first two blocks, untrimmed and then trimmed.

These were rotated which is why the trimmed blocks look a bit different from the untrimmed ones.  Not to worry, each set is exactly the same.

A new string quilt

After all the excitement (and pain) of finishing my Sock Madness socks, I need an easy peasy project:  A new string quilt.  I love making string quilts.  The best part is picking out the fabrics and deciding what goes next to what.  It's mindless, fun and pretty to do.

 

So, here I am, with 3 blocks sewn.  After I finish all the blocks, I'll pull out the paper foundation.  I have no idea on how I will arrange the blocks, although this is what I usually do.

I have my usual basketweave sock on the needles, but I'm working very very slowly on them.  My wrists need a good rest.

I actually finished...

a quilt!  Really finished, as in it's quilted and bound and ready to be mailed off.  Took me long enough.

Yep, it's another string quilt.  I love making string quilts.  I could make them nonstop.  Easy sewing, no points matching, and the fun of deciding which strip to place next to the previous one.

Finished batik strings!

I finished this back in November, but what with all the weird computer and camera problems, never got to post it.  So, here it is:  A batik string quilt.

I couldn't get the color to come out right.  So, somewhere between the bright blue pics and the orange ones is the real color.  And I can't take more pics because it's now happily residing in Minnesota.

I had such fun with this!  String quilts are my favorite quilts to make:  no fuss, I get to pick out tons of colors, arrange as I go along.  The bias edges make it easy to match up, sort of.  Matching points is not my forte, but picking out colors and mishmashing it all together is easy to do.

I'm working on another quilt right now, but the morning light is pretty crummy at the moment, so no pics.  And, I'm thinking of doing a Jacob's Ladder next.  Oh, my.  Points to match.  Eh, if they do, they do.  The fun is putting it all together.

A decision or not.

 

So, I made a decision.  I'm not going to put solid strips between the chevrons.  I prefer it chevron-ish to block-ish.  (2 new words in the English language).

Next decision, to have the blocks zigzag in chevron fashion as above,

or

Better picture of that diamond moment.

 Yep, this is what I'm going to do.  I love the ziggy zaggy coming to a diamond.  I just can't get away from the diamond patterns.

I finished the floating boxes flimsy but have to take a good picture of it.  It's sunny out, so maybe in a little while.  Or else I'll wait for the Hubz to hold it up.

Strings, glorious strings!

I'm entranced with these things.  Here's what I'm playing with now.

Here are 3 rectangles, approx 5" x 10".  All put together.  OK, that's one idea.

Next idea.

 

Rectangles separated with background fabric, which will be bone.  I know this looks sort of gray-ish white, but the paper is actually the exact color of the fabric.  So just imagine the blocks bordered with bone Kona.

Third idea.

 

Blocks separated with either that soft green, the cheery pink, and/or the persimmon Kona at the top.  Each block bordered with a single color?  So then 2 solids would be next to each other?  Each block bordered at top and sides with a single color?  Then there were be one solid next to blocks?

Well, considering that I only have 3 of these made, I have plenty of time to decide what I want to do.  That persimmon (the dark reddish strip), is actually a deep pink, kind of like the background of a couple of the strips, but a wee bit lighter.

Design Floor Monday - Shirt Strings

Shirt quilt so far.  I figure 7-8 rows of 6 blocks, plus a border, binding.  All made out of shirts that I found at thrift shops or garage sales.  This is for the Hubz, and he is so totally into it that he now scouts out shirts for me.  The rules for this particular quilt are:  all-cotton if possible, although there are some cotton/poly blends in here; colors are blues and white and/or a bit of green.  In my fair isle knitting years, I always had a sparkle color someplace to add a bit of zip to the pattern, and now in my quilting years, the same thing holds true.  So, the green adds the zip.  Well, at least I think so.

Here's what a block looks like before trimming. 

And here it is after trimming.

Cool, huh?  I could do this all day long.  I see many more string quilts in my future.  I love the process, plus it doesn't matter much if my seams are wonky.  Yay, wonky seams.

I've spent maybe $10 - 15 on these shirts so far, and I have so much material that I can easily make 3 more of these quilts.  Now I want to use "real" fabric for the next one, and play around with sewing blocks together and then cutting to make different blocks.

Shirts Strings Sing

 

String quilts are such fun, especially when they are made out of men's shirts and bought at bag sales at thrift shops.  XXL shirts yield a ton of fabric, and even smaller sizes have lots to cut.  I look for 100% cotton, although I'm happy to take a cotton/poly combination provided that cotton is the main fiber.  So far I have 4 10" squares done, and lots and lots of fabric to go. 

The Hubz needs a guy quilt, and what could be more guy than men's shirtings?  And do I care if he gets ketchup on the quilt?  Nah.  This is just leftovers.  

The trick is to spend very little money on the shirts, no more than $2/shirt, and even better, if the thrift shop is having a sale of stuff a bag for $5, boy can you ever squash in those shirts! It also helps to have a theme.  So, I look for blue and white and occasionally a bit of green.  Easy peasy to find, since most men's shirts seem to be blue and white.  Stripes, plaids, checks, it doesn't matter.

And on a much slower note, here are the Dots and Boxes joined together.  These are English paper pieced, all hand done, and they take forever.  Nice to do in front of the TV, or chatting with the Hubz.  Im not particularly interested in speed, so EPP suits me just fine.  And now that I'm fixated on string quilts, well there is where I can zoom along.

Such fun!  

And yesterday I found my long-lost Dresden template, and you know what's in my head now.  Little Dresden circles.  I have tons of charm packs, too.  No pics because this is all in my head.

As for my poor knitting, alas, I seem to knit only at night and am working on a very large shawl.  One of these days I'll show you.