Last of the 2021 Strings (and Friends)

Happy Friday once again, quilt-y friends! At long last I have photos of that last quilts from the 2021 block drive. 

If you remember, the 2021 drive was the one where you all made string blocks that were foundation pieced directly onto the batting. 

With another block drive wrap up comes another map:

At the same time, I wanted to do a round-up of some more string quilts that have been completed.

Top by Pam C, quilted by Linda

These two tops were sent in by Pam C. some time ago and finally finished by Linda on her longarm.

Top by Pam C, quilted by Linda

I really liked this floral quilting design with the leaves and little circles of peas or seeds.

Julie W. made this top of string foundation pieced onto batting in the style of the 2021 drive.  I "quilted" it, but all I really did was add a backing and loosely stipple it on since the quilting was really already done. 

Top by Julie W, quilted by me

Lots of fin colors and patterns in these fabrics.

In the past few months I've tried to organize my stash of leftover blocks. Pam D. helped out by assembling and quilting these into a quilt on her longarm. These are leftovers from the 2020 String Drive.

Leftover string blocks, finished by Pam

Christy G. had also sent in some string tops. I quilted this small, bright quilt during a flurry of activity last month.

Top by Christy G, quilted by me

This string top, also by Christy G., is made of shirtings scraps from mens dress shirts. This one was also sent to Linda and she quilted it on her longarm. 

Top by Christy G, quilted by Linda

Shirting quilts are some of my very favorites and some of the most popular with families at the hospital, for obvious reason. 

Lastly, this string top was paper pieced by members of the NURTURE circle of do good stitches.  (It was exactly the wrong size to make it difficult to photograph).

NURTURE circle top, pieced by Briawna, quilted by me

Briawna assembled the top and I quilted it.  It was tempting to use rainbow binding, but I thought black would help frame it. 

I found the perfect backing fabric to go with the wild top! 

So there we go, ten string quilts ready to go! I hope you're having a good week, make time to treat yourself.  Fudge got some pretty new toenails! 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 900 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

Strings Progress...

In case you missed the post earlier this week, CiL is now affiliated with another charity who will help us with discounted shipping!  Check out the details here and never pay more than $15 to ship to us again!

String quilts 13-15 are ready for their debut! I have put together all of these and really enjoyed working with all the different color combinations and blocks.  I really like this yellow/brown/red color fade, even though I did sort of lose the plot on that upper right corner. 

Blue and brown, always a classic combination. These are from the Jan/Feb string block drive. To see a tutorial of how I put them together there's a post here. 

These pretty pink/yellow/green/blue blocks went together really well and I used some of my leftover pink and blue dyed binding to finish it.  

Lastly, this black and red quilt had a dye-bleeding catastrophe in the wash from some of the red backings. It was far more than a color catcher or three could handle. After soaking in Dawn, washing in Syntrapol, etc. I think I revived it. Fortunately since the squares are black and red neither one shows some pink too noticeably. 

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 800 so far! The September/October drive is running now, check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

Strings #3

Five more string quilts from January makes 12 total finished comfort quilts for Covered in Love! This first one with the pastel blocks is one of my favorites so far. 

There will eventually by 19 of these. (There is actually another one done, but there was a major dye-running incident so I'm still working on it...)  I really like the way they look arranged into color blocks.

The rainbow quilts are definitely stunners. I have made 4 of them so far.  I love the way the little bursts of contrasting color jump out. 

They're beautiful quilts, but also there's all the significance of rainbows, the rainbow after the storm, etc.

I've got got 6 more of these to sew together, so I am still working on them slowly but steadily.  It's good weather for working inside in the air conditioning! 

My parent's garden is booming and I've been putting up pickles because we have an abundance of cucumbers.  Everyone we know has been getting bags of cucumbers, I wish I could share them with all of you!

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 800 so far! The July/August drive is running now, check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

More String Quilts

Three more string quilts to show you this week! I got these done and needed to get them photographed in time to take them up to the hospital last week. Unfortunately that meant photos on a cold windy day! Sorry you can't quite see the entire quilts, one row was folded over.  

I really really love the color combo in this first quilt. It was inspired by a set of about 10 blocks set in with blues, brows, coppers, and maroon.  I pulled complimentary blocks to match and make an entire tops out of them.

Next, this one has pink and light brown stripes.  And last, a vibrant rainbow quilt! I will definitely be making more quilts with a rainbow palette because I LOVE how this one looks. 

The sun is out bright this week, flowers are blooming and bees are buzzing, and we've started the annual cycle of planting the garden.  

The kitties are enjoying baking themselves in front of the windows in the warm sunshine :)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

First Strings of the Year

I decided to go ahead and get working on the string blocks during our snow storm.  These are the string blocks foundation pieced onto batting that CiL did for our Jan/Feb drive.   You can see my tutorial on how I am assembling and "quilting" them here. 

I'm having a lot of fun picking our color groups and playing with  patterns. The top quilt is pink, purple, and yellow moving in a diagonal across the quilt.  

Next is blue, aqua, and green color blocks.  I've decided it looks best when I have all the stripes slanting the same direction. 

I tried to get pictures of the diagonal wavy quilting I did through the blocks, but it's hard to see. You can just see it on the upper right against the navy blue fabric.  

I've gotten lots of blue blocks already so I did a color fade on this one. Lastly, the one I showed from the tutorial, is an orange and red checkerboard with horizontal quilting lines through the blocks.

They're fun to make and easy because the quilting step is basically already done! Sundae is also enjoying these pre-padded blocks. She's an expert at keeping them from flying away ;)

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! During March/April we are supporting the Hands2Help Challenge instead of our normal block drive.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday

Assembling Foundation Pieced Batting

I know a lot of people have been curious about how the Jan/Feb string blocks that are foundation pieced onto batting will be put together.  I took advantage of the snow days to start putting some together so you can see.

I sorted out red and orange blocks for my first quilt.  Step one is to put right sides together and sew with a fat quarter inch seam through all the layers.

Step 2 is to finish the seam. I've done this before by finger pressing the seams open and stitching over them with a triple zigzag (visible in close up photos on this post).  

I decided this time to push the seam allowance to one side and top stitch it down about 1/8th inch from the seam.

And basically that's it. I like to assemble mine in columns and then join those into rows.  Make sure to push your seam allowances in different directions so they will nest. 

It does take longer to basically sew every seam twice, but it's worth it because of how easy the quilting is!

I use glue basting to put my quilt sandwiches together.  (More details in this post).  Since there isn't really going to be much quilting, just enough to tack the backing onto the top, the glue can be sparse.

I FMQ'ed 6 wavy lines across the quilt, through the center of each row. 

Trim, bind, and ta-da! All done.  I hope this helps answer some questions for you, feel free to ask in the comments if you have any others :)

Like many of you, we've had tons of snow and cold weather. I'm told we're breaking 100 year records. Fortunately we have had power and water throughout, knock on wood. Sundae and Fudge were very curious about the snow, I think the bright sunny day confused them into thinking it would be nice to go outside. They dash out the door and straight down the steps before realizing the problem...

Nope, nope, nope.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 700 so far! The Jan/Feb drive is going on now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday