Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Remember That Box of Pink and White Strings?


Remember that box of pink strings I was going to make into quilts? (If you don't remember go back and read my Feb. 15 post). 

Well, so far I've made a couple of flimsies from that box of strings. 


 Rocky Road to Kansas
63 x 63

I've always wanted to try to make a Rocky Road to Kansas string quilt because I've been inspired by many vintage ones.  
 So I've finally done it. 
 I actually didn't even know how to begin. I didn't want to make a lot of small blocks because a lot of my strings were wide and I wanted to use the strings without further cutting.  I'm not good at making my own templates but then remembered...

...a quilt called Chance in Kathy Doughty's book Making Quilts. Her wedges are made up of triangles but the wedge template for the background pieces worked perfectly for me.  I made wedges out of newspaper and sewed my strings to them. I first thought I would make strip sets and then cut the wedges out of the strip sets but later decided I wanted four similar blocks in each set rather than some willy nilly blocks like the stars in my 3+ Sheets to the Wind quilt  The wedges aren't all exactly the same since the strings weren't all the same width but each set of four uses the same strings. 

 Strings without a clever name.
40 x 60

 I made 10 inch (finished) blocks. I used taped together phone book pages for the foundation piecing. 
 Both of the quilts, when finished, will be donation quilts.  They probably won't be finished until summer. Right now I don't have batting or backings for them. 


  So now...what's left of that box of strings? 

I took out all of the bright pink strings and put them in with the bright strings box.  That left me with a few pale pink strings. I'm not sure what I'll do with them right now. I may combine them with other colors of pastel strings and neutrals when I get to them and make a quilt. 
 I have some small string end pieces that I'll put with the crumb scraps or make into coins. 
I have some wide and very long pieces (from sheets I used for backings) I separated out that I can use for bindings or piece together for backings. 

And I have some white/neutral strings. I'm thinking I might combine those with some black/dark strings and make something.  Time will tell. 

9 comments:

Angie said...

Wow! That was quick! The results look wonderful!

em's scrapbag said...

Oh my you made such good use of all those strings. The quilts are wonderful!

Quiltdivajulie said...

Speedy you are!

---"Love" said...

Very pretty pink quilts! ---"Love"

Nancy said...

Wow, those are spectacular quilts, Cathy. The one on the left is especially striking with the large red diamonds! You are amazing!

Louise said...

Oo, Rocky Road to Kansas is such a cool pattern! Very smart to adapt the Chance pattern to use with strings. Making the four wedges the same gives it a different feel than the completely scrappy randomness of "No Clever Name." They both look great, fresh and cheerful. Now I want strawberry ice cream; must be my brain thinking about rocky road ice cream but translated into pink...

Pamela Arbour said...

Very impressive!

MissPat said...

Not sure how you whip these up so fast, but your machine must have been smoking when you got done. Both tops are amazing.
Pat

Kaja said...

You made short work of that!