I learned to love books early in my life because my Mom was a teacher librarian. We have always been surrounded by books and conversation about books.
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| Liberated String Quilts by Gwen Marston |
Most quilters I know have amassed an extensive collection of inspirational books. Some books are purchased to sew a specific quilt pattern from the book, some are to enjoy the "eye candy', some are purchased to support a beloved writer/designer/quilter, and some are purchased to learn new creative ways of thinking or stitching.
When Bea created the "Dust off a quilt book" blog hop, I started looking at some of my old favourites and was drawn to my Gwen Marston books, especially her Liberated String Quilts book.
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| String piecing on batting |
I started my quilt on the Moda String Along day and made some progress. I am using up the long pieces of batting trimmed from the sides of a finished quilt. You know when your quilt is 80" and the batting is 90", so you have a 10" strip of batting that you cut off? What do you do with that strip?
I thought these long batting strips would be a perfect foundation for a string quilt. Here are some of my first strips under the needle, putting through one after the other leader-ender style.
Although Gwen's book talks about "foundation free methods", I decided to make a quilt-as-you-go style string quilt for the blog hop. I pieced the strings onto a batting that has a solid colour backing fabric underneath. Once the strings are all pieced, the quilting is done and you just have to join the sections together for a finished quilt. Well, you also have to put on a binding too, but you know how much I love doing that!
Here are the first two strips sewn, with a sashing strip being auditioned on the right.
Such a wide variety of scraps in these pieces!
I tried to use each fabric only once, but apparently there are a few repeats. And what are the chances of randomly piecing two sections of strings and having the exact same pink fabric meet in the middle?!?
I had to separate these two strips and put one on the left of the quilt and one on the right.
Here is the photo of sewing the sections together. The dark brown sashing will be on the front of the quilt and the gold sashing will be on the back of the quilt.
And this is how it looks when I am machine stitching down the final line of stitching on the edge of the sashing. Usually I do this with hand stitching, but I didn't have time to do that if I wanted to be able to finish this quilt in time for the blog hop! This beaded awl with a wicked point was the perfect tool for holding the edge in place while sewing. Here is the finished quilt placed sideways on the design wall. The finished measurement is 40" x 60".
There are so many wonderful bits and pieces of fabric in this quilt. I love that each string is leftover from another project, and found a new life in this quilt. And I love that each section is a different width depending on the piece of batting that I was using up. I plan to donate this quilt to the comfort quilt collection at my local quilt guild.
This is how the quilt looks from the back. I used up a collection of solid fabrics that were given to me. I don't enjoy sewing with solids but they make a great looking quilt backing.I encourage you to visit the other blogs in the blog hop and here's the list for today... ENJOY!
Tuesday Feb 19th
Cindy Stitchin at home
Jennifer at curlicuecreations
Stephanie at stephjacobsondesigns
Kathy at Kathysquilts (that's me!)
I just love scrappy quilts, and this is so nice. And with that photo in the snow, ah. You just gave me a new idea actually. You'll see.
ReplyDeleteThis is a stunning quilt. The picture of it on the bench is wonderful. Looking at the back is like looking at another quilt altogether. What is really strange is that last night for the very first time I made a few string blocks and joined them together the way you pictured. I hope my quilt will be as successful as yours.
ReplyDeleteGreat way to use up strings and batting scraps! Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteSuch a fun quilt. I've seen this book at the library didn't realize you worked on the batting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun quilt and a terrific way to use up not only fabric strips but batting strips as well.
ReplyDeleteOh, so clever! I will have to try this out too! Many thanks for showing how you did this.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun quilt to look at, especially your snow photo. I recognize a few of the fabrics. This quilt looks like a bookcase full of books to me ~ perhaps a shelf full of "dusty old quilt books"?
ReplyDeleteGreat quilt. Beautiful picture of quilt on a snowy bench.
ReplyDeleteThe quilt looks fabulous in your snowy scenery! Thanks for sharing your quilt as you go project!
ReplyDeleteOh...what a great way to use up those scraps....just a fun fun quilt.
ReplyDeleteExcellent string quilt! I just started something similar :)
ReplyDeleteWow I like your quilt.
ReplyDeleteI am unsure how I feel about string quilts in general. But, when I saw the picture on the bench in the snow, I decided I really like this one. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a great string creation! Nice backing, too. I have never done a QAYG--it kind of scares me to think about it. :)
ReplyDeletethis is so pretty. makes me think of an i spy quilt. how fun just looking at the different pieces. thanks for sharing today. quilting dash lady at comcast dot net
ReplyDeleteThat snow picture of your quilt is AWESOME!! I really need to try one of these quilts. What fun you must have had picking strips from the string bin!
ReplyDeleteThat is such a fun, colorful, and scrappy quilt! I love the quilt as you go idea for strings, and would really like to learn that method. Is there a book or tutorial out there to teach it?
ReplyDeleteScrappy Fun!! Thanks for playing and posting the memories of your mom. My library is full of my Quilty books that need to see the daylight.
ReplyDeleteVery neat quilt! So cool! Enjoy your day! angielovesgary2 atgmail dotcom
ReplyDeleteIt looks great and love how colorful scrap quilts are. I shared your tip with my Mom about sewing strings on the the paper inserts of batting and interfacing pieces.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the strips, at first I thought "Oh, she's making a Golden Coin quilt," and you could even gone with the books on the shelf quilt. Nice variation on the scrap buster.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea for the strings! I love the idea of using long strips of batting as the foundation. Great, great looking finish!
ReplyDeleteYour quilt looks gorgeous on that bench in the snow...love it! I've got to make a string quilt for Creatin' in the Sticks Strings blog hop. Since I've never made one, I've been on the look out for methods. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteOh, Kathy! I love this! It's the perfect way to use strips of batting, and the end piece is so wonderfully scrappy and vibrant. It will cheer and comfort one to fulfill its destiny :)
ReplyDeletelove your string quilt, makes me want to get back to mine
ReplyDeleteYour string quilt turned out great. And I could tell you were having fun, that's the most important part about quilting. It's funny about the two pink strings - that sounds like something that would happen to me. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteSuch an interesting process with stripping on the batting. Your finished quilt is amazing.
ReplyDeleteGreat quilt and I think I want to try your technique. I have that same book and I have it out right now
ReplyDeleteThat looks so beautiful and the snow picture is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteI love string quilts and this one is perfect! I think the person that receives this quilt will be thrilled. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun way to use it or loose it. I love string quilts and the feeling you get when you've cleared out more scraps. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI love that string quilts all colors go together. So fun! Thanks for sharing the process.
ReplyDeleteThat photo of your quilt on the bench out in the snow is gorgeous. I like using all the scraps of batting and fabrics. I will have to try your idea. I would find the 2 pinks lining up like yours did annoying as well.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great scrappy quilt! I did laugh about your two pink strips meeting exactly...that's something I would do for sure, except I probably wouldn't have noticed until they were sewn together :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kathy, thanks for sharing your project and how you pieced the different pieces together - I always wondered about that. It's a great idea for using up those lovely scraps we all have :-)
ReplyDelete