What's In A Box of Strings?

In Cathy's world strings are a natural occurrence. I don't cut into yardage to make strings. If I cut yardage I call those strips. Strings come from quilt back trimmings, or wonky yardage ends or yardage ends that are usually less than 1.5 inches. I keep selvages separate from strings but I do consider selvages strings.

I keep a box for strings under my cutting table. When it gets full I start another one. Well, I had several boxes of strings so decided to put all of them except for some light ones in one big box. The box height is 16 inches, the length is 19 inches and the width is 13 inches. 

The strings are fluffed up and not smashed down and the box is FULL. I was not going to deal with the strings until next year but that box sure takes up a lot of space so I started on them this year instead. 

Inside that box there is also a bag of black strings I separated out when I made Let's Party blocks last year. 

I am going to keep novelties in a separate bag for a string quilt for kids.

I have already separated out dark strings from the big box and I made a String Star top a few days ago. 

I blogged at the beginning of the month about making that String Star as well as a Kaleidoscope Quilt.

Now in addition to the Kaleidoscope Quilt I will make another Crossed Quilt. 

The Kaleidoscope Quilt will be made of 10 inch blocks with wedges cut with a Kaleidoscope ruler. I would like 48 blocks. That means I need 192 string wedges and 192 wedges of the red fabric I am using as the background.  

The Crossed Quilt takes 10 x5 pieces and 6 x 5 string pieces -- 48 of each for 48 blocks. 

So I got started on both quilts at the same time. I grabbed a bunch of strings...

...to make string fabric. I separated out the novelties and the really skinny strings went into the gardening bag to use as garden ties.  I first cut strings 22 inches long -- that will give me made fabric for cutting 10 inch pieces for Crossed as well as two 5.5 inch strips to use to cut wedges for the Kaleidoscope quilt.  No sense in sorting strings again and again...might as well use all of the strip if I can. 

After I cut 22 inch lengths from the strings if I could I cut...

...12 inch pieces which when sewn together into a big piece of fabric can be subcut into 6 inch strip for Crossed Quilt as well as a 5.5 inch strip for Kaleidoscope wedges.  And then, guess what! ...there were still some length left on some of those long strings so I cut 5 inch lengths for a string quilt I saw at Crazy Mom Quilts. 

So on and on it went...sort and cut...

...sort and cut...

....sort nd cut...

...until I had several stacks of different lengths of strings. 

I didn't cut the final round for Crazy Mom strings at 5 inches  because I was not sure if I would need those for the Crossed or Kaleidoscope Quilts so I will cut those later after I have all the pieces I need for Crossed and Kaleidoscope Quilts. 

I sewed together all of the 22 inch lengths of strings along the long edge until I had several long lengths of fabric. One was 56 inches long and the other was 76 inches long. 

I ironed all seams in one direction then trimmed up one edge and cut off a 10 inch strip and then two 5.5 inch strips. 

I then cut the 10 inch piece into 5 inch width pieces for the Crossed Quilt. I ended up with 32 - 5 x 10 inch pieces for the Crossed Quilt and need 48 pieces. 

I used a Kaleidoscope ruler and cut wedges from the 5.5 inch pieces. 

I ended up with 112 wedges and need 192. 

Then I sewed the 12 inch lengths of strings together for one big piece of fabric and then 

...trimmed that piece of fabric off and cut off a 6 inch strip and a 5.5 inch strip. The six inch strip was subcut into 5 inch widths for the Crossed Quilt and I ended up with 30 out of the target of 48 pieces for Crossed. 

I cut more wedges from that 5.5 inch piece that came off the 12 inch piece. I ended up with a total of 178 wedges. Only 14 more to go!

So then I cut 6 inch lengths of strings and made a width of fabric I thought should be enough for 14 more wedges. I ironed, trimmed it up, then cut wedges. 

I now have more than enough string wedges for my Kaleidoscope Quilt. Next I will cut the background red wedges and I'm thinking I will use blue and yellow scraps for the Kaleidoscope block corners. 

After that I finished up 16 more 10 x 5 pieces for the Crossed Quilt so I don't need any more of those. 

Now I only need 18 more 5 x 6 inch pieces for Crossed and I will have all the strings I need for the Kaleidoscope Quilt and the Crossed Quilt.   Then I will probably make the String Quilt with novelties because that will take some longer strings. After that I will probably finish cutting and making all the pieces I need for Crazy Mom string quilt. Then I wonder what will be left in that box. 

 

Eclectic Flower Garden

Eclectic Flower Garden

It's a top!

54 x 72

Last year I made string blocks for a couple of different quilts - Let's Party and Crossed.  After I made those blocks I was left with a lot of short skinny strings. 

I first saw these blocks at Den syende himmel and thought they would be a good use for my short and skinny strings.  For the backgrounds I cut 5 inch squares from an eclectic mix of florals.  For the black corners I used waste triangles. 

Actually some of the florals were kind of ugly. And some have polyester in them. A few are a dotted swiss print and a few are upholstery/heavier fabrics.  So...eclectic. 

I finished all 192 of the blocks back in March and put them into my Some Assembly Required (SAR) box. 

My October One Monthly Goal (OMG) was to assemble at least one top from the SAR box.  I like to get my goals out of the way as soon as I can so this one is "at least one top" assembled. 

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

 

A Few Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) Projects

I didn't get my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) orange blocks made last month so I'm working on them this month. This month's RSC color is lime or light green but I used all colors of green scraps back when the RSC color was dark green so don't need to make any green blocks. 

This year I've been mostly working with scrap chunks. I've been cutting off some 3.5 inch width pieces and some 2 inch pieces to make blocks that use both of those size scraps. 

Antique Tiles

9 inch finished blocks

I currently have 56 blocks and my target is 63. I'm going to try to get 7 more blocks made within the next few weeks and think I will use brown scraps to make them. 

These are also made of 3.5 and 2 inch pieces. 

Uneven Nine Patch

Six inch finished blocks.

I currently have 76 blocks and my target is 130. This will continue as an RSC project next year. 

This is another block with 3.5 and 2 inch pieces. I've been making them with scraps in the RSC color of the month and old shirts or dark scraps. 

Buckeye Beauty

Six inch finished blocks.

I have 84 out of a target of 130 so this block will continue into next year. And I have a few shirts I still need to cut up to add to the mix. 

This is yet another block that is made with 3.5 and 2 inch pieces. 

X+

7.5 inch finished blocks.

I have 46 out of a target of 99 so this is another block that will continue into next year.  I'm thinking that I will make the rest of the blocks in the RSC color of the month plus it's color complement. 

These little 3 inch finished Bow Ties are a new RSC project made with 2 inch scraps. 

In August I worked with my orphan blocks and found a little baggie with 40 little Bow Ties. I adopted those orphans and now they are happy to be a new RSC project. 

Double Irish Chain

These are made with 1.5 inch scraps in the RSC color of the month plus a light brown or cream background and a dark brown chain. 

9 inch finished. 

I have 52 out of a target of 63 blocks. I hope to make 11 more blocks by year end. There will be a scrappy cream/lt brown  sashing with cornerstones. 

I played around a little bit with an alternate block. I like the look of a quilt at Quilter's Cache called Soldier's Walk but I don't think I like that idea for this quilt. Instead I'm thinking I have a lot of small patriotic print scraps that would be put to good use in Soldier's Walk.  So I guess those two alternate blocks I made are now orphans. 

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Stringing Stars Top

 

Stringing Stars

68 x 68

It's a flimsy!

Free pattern from Quilts & Quilts The Fabric Shoppe

The other day when I blogged about cleaning up after a September quilting marathon I mentioned that Stringing Stars was one of the quilts I planned to make from my strings.  I was actually going to wait until 2022 to work with my strings and crumbs. After I looked at my giant box of colored strings I decided I should work on them as soon as possible or I might end up strangled with strings. 

I have a couple of other string quilts in mind but started with this one because it uses some of the longer strings and a few others use shorter strings.  So from my giant box of strings I pulled out all of the darks. I only included a few black strings because I wanted to save those to mix in with the brights later on.  After I had the dark strings sorted then I pulled out all of the novelties from the darks to use in a different quilt for kids later on. 

I still get a little hometown newspaper delivered because I use it in gardening  and use it when I need larger paper foundations for quilting. I cut 9 inch newspaper squares for foundations. I don't mind pulling the papers off the back. I throw those newspaper pieces in the compost pile when I've finished tearing them off. 

Next time I make half dark/half light string blocks I need to remember to line them up a little better on the diagonal when I sew them. I guess that's where  little glue might come in handy. 

I really had to scrape the barrel to find enough neutral strings. 

I do have some other light colored strings I was tempted to use but decided to try to keep to mostly white and cream. 

Oh, and I had a bunch of long strings of that dark star fabric that came from trimming a large quilt back. I had enough strings of it in various widths to use in each of the star points so I guess that was meant to be. 

I'll be starting on a couple more string quilts soon. Before I do I will blog about that giant box of strings and plans for it. 

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Oh, Those 39Ps !

A few months ago I decided to dig into my bin of three inch nine patches (39Ps) and make some Path and Stiles blocks using the 39Ps as the block centers. I pulled out blocks in two colorways and then tried to match fabrics to make the block. 

I think it takes me longer to pick through my scraps to find fabrics that "match" than it does to make the blocks. 

I'm also using the 39Ps in two colorways as the centers for some Framed Stars. 

I'm also using 39Ps as the centers for these blocks whatever their name. (How about Framed Nine Patch).  I'm using 39Ps in a color plus neutral; however I see I have an orange and yellow one in this batch.  These will have a neutral sashing with dark squares on each end and white/neutral cornerstones so a little nine patch forms. 

This year I've been trying to get all my new starts to flimsy stage before year end. If I don't get them to flimsy stage then at least I hope to make complete blocks sets so they can go into my Some Assembly Required (SAR) box. Year end will be here before I know it so I've been trying to make a few of each of these blocks every week. 

I used to swap 39Ps quarterly for a number of years. Even though I have made 4 large quilts with them I still have a 14 quart bin of them. The grocery bag has ones with light corners. With those I've been thinking I will make a quilt similar to the Framed Nine Patch with sashing but make it the reverse of the current WIP. 

Links to quilts I've made in the past with 39Ps:

 Zig Zag Nine Patch

Jack's Chain I 

Jack's Chain II (to be hand quilted)

Sister's Choice 

One of the next quilts I plan to make is inspired by this vintage quilt. I think one of the gallon bags in the bin is filled with possible 39Ps for this quilt but I'm not sure anymore. And I'm not sure what those numbers are I jotted down in the margin. Guess when I'm ready to make the quilt I'll figure it out. 

 

Dove In The Window

I didn't do any piecing last month so this month I need to catch up on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks made with orange scraps. I've been using mostly floral scraps. 

I had orange scraps for two Dove In The Window blocks that finish at 10.5 inches.  When I looked at my total tally of blocks I saw I had 61 blocks and wanted a total of 64 for a top. I did an actual count to see if that total agreed with my tally sheet. No...I counted twice and only counted 60 blocks. Well, with these two I then had 62 blocks so I decided to go ahead and make 2 more blocks. 

So I made two more blocks. Then when I dug through my RSC box of projects I found the extra block. So now I have my total of 64 and an orphan.  At any rate there are enough for a quilt top that should end up 84 inches square. 

For the time being I am going to put the set of blocks in my Some Assembly Required (SAR) box.  This box holds complete block sets (or pieces like the tumblers aka peacock feathers) ready to be assembled into a top. 

I took inventory and the SAR box now contains:

Dove in the Window

Grandmother's Flower Garden 

Sixteen Patch

Short Skinny String blocks (Eclectic Strings)

Single Wedding Ring

Sunny Lanes

Peacock Feathers

Animal Crackers II

My October One Monthly Goal (OMG) is to assemble at least one top from the SAR box. Hmmm, where do I start? 

OMG at Elm Street Quilts

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

 

Cleaning Up

After finishing 29 quilts last month I was left with some piles of scraps to clean up. 

I started making Trip Around The World (TATW) blocks at the end of August. At that time I used most of the dark 2 inch width scraps I had and mentioned that my next step would be to look through the box of quilt back trimmings for dark strips, cut those into 2 inch widths and see how many blocks I could make. 

With what was in the quilt back trimmings box including what was added to it after my quilting marathon, I was able to make 10 more TATW blocks.  I do still have the lighter quilt back trimmings and wider width quilt back trimmings to go through but I hope to empty that box very soon. 

So, now I have a total of 22 TATW blocks that finish at 9 inches. I am going to set those aside for awhile until I decide what fabrics to use next for these blocks. 

Some of the quilt back trimmings or yardage ends from cutting bindings or backings that are mostly less than 1.5 inches or wonky cuts are now in the string box. The string box is getting pretty full again so I've decided on two new string projects...

...#1. a kaleidoscope quilt similar to this one where the strings run vertically in the wedges. I've made one with strips running horizontally but never one like this. I have not figured out how much background fabric I need, size of the blocks or color of the background yet. 

#2. I will make a string star quilt similar to this one. 

I had a lot of waste triangles from all the binding joins last month. I made those into Wonky Hourglasses.  They can now join the bags and boxes of Wonky Hourglasses I've been making since the beginning of the year. 

You may or may not remember that at the beginning of this year I decided to make Wonky Hourglasses out of all the waste triangles I have around here. When I feel like it I use them as a leader/ender project.  I trim the dog ears but I don't care if they are wonky. I don't like the process of trimming or squaring up especially when there are hundreds and hundreds of the little buggers. I'm going to use them as is in made fabric to make my version of a vintage quilt I just love. 

So, anyway, I cleaned up the waste triangles from the binding joins. 

I used a lot of different colors and brands of quilting thread last month. I'm not a thread snob and just usually buy whatever I can find on clearance or on sale wherever. Well, anyway, leftover bobbins with thread on them was becoming difficult to match up with the proper spool of thread so I started keeping the spools in a snack baggie with the bobbins which will make it easier to start quilting next time. And those 20 baggies or so of matching spools and bobbins are now stored away in a drawer in the desk where my sewing machine sits. 

Now that most of my quilting mess has been cleaned up I'm ready to move on to garden clean up and on to some piecing.