String Quilts

My good friend Gene asked about my string quilts. He hadn't seen them in a while, so I'm reposting some of the ones I've done in the recent past.  Most come from scraps left over but the majority come from me cutting in the vast amount of fabric I have stored away and needing to refold. That's when I find most of the ideas of new string quilt designs....I know some of you know exactly what I talking about. The, "Oh wow, when did I buy that fabric," or "I didn't know I even had that one."

This one was a string challenge from my Wacky group.

 I couldn't find the photo of the whole quilt on this one but the close up is of some of my favorite fabrics.

 

This one was from strips of fabrics from many other projects.

 This one is from my red, white and black period. The rose fabric came from a quilt shop in San Antonio, TX. Funny how I can remember that and can't remember where I put my car keys.

 This was from some cowboy fabrics I had left over.

 On clue when I made this one but I do remember the 1 inch off white strip I used as an eye-popper.

 I was playing around with tone on tones in this one with dark fabrics to show off the tones.

 This one was made with all of my green fabrics. Green is my favorite color. I used several red fabric to bring out the center of the diamonds and then did a small red first border.

 Here, I was given some pink floral fabric from a lady's grandmother. I made the quilt you see for myself and made one for her as well.

 Pink, again. This one was made at the request of Ayden, my granddaughter. At the time she loved pink.

 Another red, white and black quilt. This is one design that I make often because it's a quick one and I never get tired seeing the fractured diamond effect.

 Another fractured diamond quilt but this time not only do you see the star in the middle but also the outlining border of brown and gray which is more pronounced than the one in the red/white/black one.

 Again, leftover fabric. I threw in the green as an accent and added the ABC at the last.

 I was just playing around with more scraps in this one. (Fractured diamond)

 Green/black/gray was used here...another fractured diamond type.

This one was made last year for a veteran.

Finally, this one was made a very long time ago, like 1998-ish.....LOL!!

So, that's the end of my string tour.

To see more strings from other bloggers click HERE!

 

 

 

Why Not.....Well, Change of Plans

Ok, so after thinking and then sleeping on it, here's what I decided.....

Here's the Jack O' Lantern I chose but.......well you'll see.

Most of you know my methods of using Heat N' Bond or Steam A Seam to trace off the design pieces then fuse them onto the chosen fabrics so I won't go into that. But I will show pics.

I use the original design to see if I like the placement of the fabrics.

So far so good.

Here I've placed all the parts onto the black background. Now here's where I've changed my mind.....again!!!! I decided to make pumpkins instead of the Jacks. The grandbabies liked that idea more, so I'm going with what they suggested. I'll do a bit of handwork for the tendrils and the veins in the leaves later. 

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear from you.  BTW, Mr. Cowboy is out in the hay fields doing more cutting. I thought this part was over. Thank goodness he has help and I'm not involved this time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one. I've missed getting in the sewing room, fondling the fabric and making a good mess!!

And another thing. Since Blogger is sort of messed up with the comment thingy, I have started responding to comments on the comment pop-up. So if you needed an answer from me, I try to answer there.

 

Moose At Morning's Light

So I got some free time this morning and pulled out some fabric completely messing up my clean sewing room....hehehehehehehehe

I've had this clipart moose for a month and decided to dive in to make it my own.

I used a mixture of batiks, solids and small prints.

I added the silhouette of the male moose.

 

I trimmed up the area and placed the whole thing on a background fabric.

Then I thought, hey, why not do something a bit wacky, which is so me!!! I added a tree in the foreground just for fun.  Not to worry, I haven't pressed everything down.  So what are your thoughts on the matter? Leave off the tree or keep the tree?! And do I need a different background?
I really want your opinions.

Celebration Part 6

Warning, this post is photo heavy!!!

I've chosen a close up of an eagle.

 

I enlarged it & outlined the parts I want to really stand out. Next I'll choose some fabrics to make the magic happen.

These are just some of the fabrics that will be used in this endeavor.

The eyes are looking good.

I've gotten the beak in place & need to stitch around the parts before I can stitch everything together.

Here's a close-up of the eagle's face. I've used crayons & markers to highlite the feathers & will use threads to further add to the coloring when I quilt the piece.

Little Firecracker is all kicked back playing some sort of video game. I don't know how her parents got her to sit still for any period of time!

Oh, I nearly forgot about the winner of the fat quarter. It's Vicki H. Congratulations to you. Her favorite color is orange.

Please leave a comment to participate in the give-away. I do believe that the next post will be #1600. Oh boy I can't wait!!!

Another Fractured Diamond Design

I purchased this fabric the other month and saw many possibilities.

So of course, I started cutting into it with another fractured diamond in mind.

I drafted a kite shape from cardboard and cut 24 out to begin with because I didn't know how large I wanted the quilt to be.

I already like the looks of this.

Here's one block.  Each block is 8 1/2" unfinished. My plan is to use up as many scrap strips as possible without them growing into a mountain......sigh!!

And now 8 blocks. Now I just have to get busy and build a quilt. Stay turned. For some reason, things (quilting) have slowed down around here as hay season gets into a full swing. It just might take awhile before this string gets done.
Happy May everyone!!!

Backing?! Arrrragh!

My girlfriend Molly has invited the rest of her "wacky" girlfriends to make instead of purchasing our own backing. This is a good thing & a bad thing. Good because backing is expensive; bad because it takes nearly just as long to make backing, for me, as it did the top. Laugh out loud! I just cannot willy-nilly sew pieces of fabric together that aren't to my liking/color coordinated......just can't!!! So this process is probably my fault. But I must say that if/when the back finally comes together I'll be very happy. Stay tuned for more on this slow journey!

Mini Wednesday

I'm back!!! I really needed that break but am happy to be back in Blogger-land and to share my new favorite mini with you.

As you can already surmise, this one will be a windmill. Lately, I've been fascinated with them.

I tried out a cloudy background but didn't like it one bit.

This is much better.

Stringing all the tiny pieces is time consuming but rewarding. Mr. Cowboy came in to watch me which was nerve racking!!!

All done and happy!!! The reason for the changing color is some of the photos were taken during the night or under my Ott-Lite.