More Skinny Strings

Back in December I blogged about three quilts I was going to make with my skinny strings.  I now have two tops and am working on the third as you see above. I started with the blocks that were made with the longest strings and am now working with the blocks that use the shortest strings. For these block backgrounds I'm using an eclectic mix of floral scraps cut into 5 inch squares. For the black string centers I'm using black waste triangles.  A tutorial may be found at Den Syende Himmel. 

I have quite a pile of these blocks so maybe now is the time to figure out how many blocks I need for a quilt. I will probably aim for a 60 x 80 quilt which is my usual donation size. 

When I made the other two quilt tops the strings got shorter and shorter so I put those aside for this quilt.  Now I'm sorting through those shorter strings for the skinniest of strings because those 5 inch background squares only get strings on less than half the block so the skinnier the better. I use most that are an inch or so wide and at least 3/4 inch. 

So now I have a bag of shorter skinnier but not too skinny strings, a pile of garden ties and...

...bags of crumbs sorted by color so someday I can continue on with my big wonky crumby hourglass blocks. 

And speaking of strings...

Remember the cardinal from my last blog post? I mentioned he had me thinking of a white quilt with a wee bit of red. 

Then these 5.5 inch string blocks happened. 

Skinny white string blocks with a wee bit of red.  I made a few... 

...and sorted my white strings and found quite a few. Maybe enough for 46 blocks? 

Why 46?? 

That's how many I need for Ann's String Tulip QAL. 

Eventually, I hope, there will be some bright red tulips in the center of all my string blocks.