I didn't believe it could happen, but the scrap bin is empty!

I've witnessed a minor miracle: my bin of dark strings is empty!

For the last four weeks, I've been working on this rectangular string quilt.

My guidelines were: 1.5 inch neutral strip on the diagonal,

bright strings on one side, and black prints on the other.

I had lots of strings and small scraps,

and I even cut a few strips off of yardage at the end for variety.

Check out my process at the String Thing Along Blog.

Here's a closer look.

I made 15 of these diamonds, 60 blocks in total.

It measured 60 inches wide and 54 inches high,

and the piano key borders brought it up to about 65 inches long.

Many of the bright scraps and strings

(see what I did there?)

came from cutting 2.5 inch strips for these mini-trip around the world blocks.

My guild is making blocks in brights and whites

for a charity quilt or two.

Three of us made these 36 blocks last month.

And yes, I know there's a block laid out wrong.

We haven't sewn any blocks together yet.

So I'm proof it can happen. We can run out of scraps.

But I'm not worried. I can always make more!

Near finish for Friday

I've been coordinated a guild quilt as you go project

and finished joining the 15 inch blocks together.

The quilt measures 90 inches square with 36 15 inch blocks

I joined the blocks with one-inch strips

and got them all together last weekend while sewing with friends at a local gallery.

I'm backing this with flannel and quilting it at another sew-in this coming holiday Monday.

 I took the leftover light strips, some of which I rejected for being too medium in value,

and joined them to make a 15 by 29 inch table runner.

I dusted off my free motion quilting skills for a design in each strip.

I backed it with a bright Riley Blake print

and bound it all in a neutral.

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers

at Crazy Mom Quilts

and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

String Pieced Log Cabins

I designed my guild's challenge for the year, 

and I thought I would share it here for the rest of you to join in if you like.

I'm not asking you to send me your blocks, but just giving you an idea

for a group project or a way to use up those long bits of batting.

Just a little aside: My quild is called The Strip Piecers,

so we often have challenges with strip piecing techniques.

We're also a thrifty bunch, so this project is using up what we have

in terms of scraps of fabric and scraps of Warm style batting.

We hope to display this quilt at a local show in May 2018.

Here's our challenge:

Finished block size: 15 inches; Finished quilt size: 90 by 90; Total number of blocks: 36

Colour scheme: lights and darks and brights. 

Method: Cut your batting strips into 3. 25 inch strips. Piece your small bits in a flip and sew method on the batting. Trim fabric and batting to 3 inches.

Block components: Each block needs 30 inches of light strip pieced batting, and 45 inches of dark/bright. They do not have to be continuous.

Cutting instructions: From your finished strips, cut the following:

Light strips: 3 inches, 6 inches, 9 inches, 12 inches

Darks: 3 inches, 6 inches, 9 inches, 12 inches, 15 inches

Light and dark fabrics: Cut 1 inch  joining strips of light and dark. You will need 30 inches (non continuous) of light strips and 45 inches of dark

This is what the back of a similar block looks like when the pieced strips are joined:

 Sewing instructions: Referring to photo, sew dark 3 inch block to light 3 inch block with one inch dark strip, using scant ¼ seam. Continue clockwise around the blog in log cabin style, using dark 1 inch strips when joining dark pieces and light strips when joining light pieces. When joining dark to light or vice versa, use dark strips.


We plan to bring our finished and cut strips to our January meeting and then swap them so each block has a variety of colours. The sample block here was made from my dark scraps and I think it needs a bit more variety.  We plan to tie the completed top to a wide flannel backing.

Here's a quilt I made a few years back using solid joining strips

and the Steps to the Courthouse pattern.

My batting strips were slightly wider and I only made four blocks

for a throw sized quilt.

Read more about it here and here.

I'm fine if you link to this tutorial, but please credit me for the idea.

And let me know if you are making blocks alongside us.

Blocks to share, blocks to keep

I'm sharing these black and white and red blocks

with you in blogland as well as with my guild friend B.

who is collecting them for a charity quilt.

My black and white fabric stash is getting low

but I found several fun prints to combine.

I like the squiggles on this one, 

and how they contrast with the straight lines in the red print.

Here's one using some of the same parts

but in a pinwheel design.

I cut these with the mix and match dies 

on the Accuquilt Go! cutter.

I'm a part owner of own with five other guild members.

A year ago, I cut lots of DS Prints with those same dies

for a mix and match sampler quilt.

These blocks sat in a box for months

until last weekend when I sashed them.

I have 20 in all,

enough to make a single quilt.

If you're wondering about the spots in the middle of the blocks,

that is masking tape marked with the number of each block,

so when they fall off the wall I know where they belong.

I'm linking up with WIP Wednesdays at

Freshly Pieced

and The Needle and Thread Network.

Finished and gifted!

This string quilt has been growing on my wall in April.

It went from a pile of blocks in brights and lights

to a sashed top

To a completed double quilt in two weeks

with the help of many hands.

This was a group effort with friends contributing blocks and sashing,

basting, and binding the quilt.

We overwhelmed the recipient with it

and she loved the bright colours,

the cuddly flannel backing and the wool batting

and all the fun fabrics in this.

We gave her the quilt,

and then we spread it out on the table and tied it in the blocks.

So now it is knotted in love too!

I'm linking up with other Friday finishers 

over at these blogs:

 Sarah and Amanda Jean and TGIFF

Monday mysteries solved and a cute baby on a quilt

My guild had a mystery evening last night, where we brought a

set of precut coordinating fabrics

and then made these weighted pincushion organizers.

(The reason the two at the right are matching is

that I cut two from my set of fabrics

and brought one to share.)

Here they are lined up at the end of the evening.

The black or green stripes in the middle

is wool felt for needles instead of pins.

Cheryl brought her new Singer Featherweight 222K

which is a twin sister to mine at the right.

We even took off the removable tables to use the free arms for this project.

Just a note to FW lovers out there: in our guild of 12, we have

four of these little machines between us.

Meanwhile, this little future quilter enjoyed lying on a baby quilt

made by my mother in the log cabin quilt-as-you-go method.

This batik beauty will be donated to charity

as part of our Year of the Baby Quilt challenge.

Anne spent the evening tying a denim picnic blanket for

 her daughter's upcoming wedding social.

If you have no idea what a wedding social is,

it's a particular Manitoba custom.

Thanks to Heather for planning this mystery and to Karen for letting us transform

her house into a sewing studio for the evening.

Year of the baby quilt, part 2

My guild is marking the impending birth of a baby girl among us

by making baby quilts for donation.

One of our guild members is having her second baby,

and since the rest of us are out of the baby-making business,

we decided to make some quilts.

Above is the stack of nine quilts and blankets guild members brought to the last meeting.

A string quilt in flannel novelites, made from leftover pj fabric.

A panel quilted to fleece. We have three of these panels among us,

and we're giving them new life as quilts after a previous existence as a curtain.

I have one, and I have the fleece for the backing,

but so far, the back and the top have yet to meet.

A preemie blanket made from sample squares

(one of those sew and stack and cut blocks)

Another blanket made from flannel novelties.

A split nine-patch, lovely in its scrappiness.

And a baby quilt not destined for this particular donation pile,

but to the maker's niece.

Year of the baby quilt

In January, or February, one my guild members is having a baby.

Since the rest of us are out of the baby-making business,

we decided to celebrate this new life among us
by each making a baby quilt to donate to a good cause.

We saw some of those baby quilts in progress last night at our guild meeting.

Heather with her baby-sized rail fence quilt, which will have a cowboy print backing.

And the doll quilt she made from the scraps of the rail fence quilt.

Anne F. with her baby sampler,which just needs the binding handstitched.

Karen G. brought this vintage 10-blade Dresden plate made by her grandmother or great aunt, I forget exactly who made it.

She wanted to quilt it until we pointed out it is a finished summer spread or tablecloth.

This isn't a baby quilt, but Cheryl's paper piecing work in progress.

Here is what's left of the yardage after fussy cutting triangles.

Bonnie was finishing up the binding on this single-sized lovely.

And a bunch of paisley fabrics for Cheryl, who loves paisleys,

so we all gave her some for her birthday.



Show and tell and more

My guild met at my house the other night, and we had a lovely show and tell.

First up is Karen with her flying geese quilt, which has been in progress for three retreats.

it has lovely colours and a few surprises.

She hand quilted it, and I hope you can see the details of the stitches here.

Here's Audrey with a tshirt quilt she made for her DIL's sister, from her stash of athletic shirts.

Two interesting facts about this quilt: Audrey did not interface the tshirt squares

 (I did on my tshirt quilts, and it's a tedious job)

and the sashing fabric glows in the dark.

Audrey  only realized that when she turned out the lights in her sewing room one evening

and the quilt glowed back at her.

Anne K made a fun baby quilt from wild and bright scraps.

I like how she offset the blocks with filler strips here and there.

And in other news, I'm getting more and more blocks from my 15 minutes play bee.

Yesterday I was different -- the envelope from one member arrived safely,

but totally empty. No blocks, no note, just a couple of threads on the adhesive on the envelope flap.

Disappointing for both the sender and the recipient.

Mayday, mayday!

Actually, there's no emergency, unless you count a snowstorm on the first day of May, but I won't be showing you any pictures of that.

I've been on vacation, and just now catching up. My guild met two weeks ago and as usual, there were lovely quilts to see.

Karen's amazing star quilt, which is now complete with the prairie points around the outside.

And a view of the back, and the panel that her young son choose, which inspired the whole project.

Heather with her squares in Kaffe prints. Both of these were started at our January retreat, and now they're done. Our guild challenge since January is to finish old projects, and I have to say I haven't met that challenge yet.

But Cheryl did. Here's her finish of the drunkard's path blocks we made for her last year. She's given this to her mom, and then borrowed it back so she could show us. My blocks in this quilt all have circles and dots on them.