Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Stringing Along...

Shabby Strings cheerfully greeted me this morning as it is covering my quilting room floor. Yesterday I made the 8 blocks I'd decided upon for another row and am really happy with that choice. Next task was to lay them all out. These blocks came from a swap with 2 quilters and it's such a bonus to have fabrics from 3 different stashes in one quilt! I think we each have our own style in making blocks too which makes the top really interesting to look at.
One quilter used mostly soft pastels, I was the only one to use lavender and a few darker prints and the other quilter used a lot of turquoise and medium value prints. Unplanned, but to great effect! It's kind of a fun challenge to try and mix the styles and to spread out some of the more noticeable fabrics.

The only bummer is that one set of blocks is cut smaller than 7.5". I used to do a lot of block swaps and it's almost always inevitable that this happens. In this case it's only about 1/8" with a few close to 1/4" short. I didn't want to trim ALL the blocks down and lose valuable cuddle inches on my quilt... but I'm learning that string blocks have no ease factor when sewing them together. The upside is that Mr. Juki sews these bulky blocks together like they are pieced from silk.

After sleeping on it, I've decided to continue assembling the blocks but use a slightly bigger seam allowance to make sure the seams are secure. Can't have any of those little string edges unraveling! Luckily the smaller blocks are sewn onto a non-muslin backing so I can easily identify them and try to distribute the short seam across the quilt. I'll have to bust out Mr. Super Ripper and it's going to be picky sewing but as they say...
I woke up with a scratchy throat and have that unpleasant perma-taste that tells me it's my turn for the unavoidable winter cold... hopefully I can get this off the floor today and start the same process with my Four Patch & Friends blocks before it gets worse.

I'm linking up to Building Blocks Tuesday@Quilter in the ClosetFabric Tuesday@Quilt Story and Freemotion by the River.

12 comments:

  1. Beautiful....this is so shabby and so pretty! I think your solution of bigger seam and smaller seam is probably the best way to deal with it. I can't see another way without ruining the design.
    I think I will put this on my to do list using just florals....I have tons.

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  2. They look lovely. Going to order my Juki today. I can't stand all this happy talk about this machine.

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  3. Oh, I love your string blocks. I hope mine come out as nicely as yours did!

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  4. Absolutely love the colours of this quilt. I could be inspired to do the same. Thanks for sharing.

    Hope the cold does not get the better of you.

    Keep stitching!

    Peggy

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  5. Love love love group quilts and this one is fantastic!

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  6. Nooooooo! You may NOT catch that cold. Tell it to pick on someone else.

    Your quilt looks lovely.

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  7. Beautiful blocks and arrangement. You are going to have a gorgeous quilt!

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  8. Beautiful blocks and I can't believe how they all go together so well...beautiful fabrics! Thanks for sharing.
    Freemotion by the River Linky Party Tuesday

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  9. Oh, your quilt is so soft looking and lovely. I can just see you snuggled under it on a cool summer evening!
    Beth in wintery Minnesota

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  10. Perfect solution! Hope the "cold thing" was a false alarm! Love the strings!!

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  11. Beautiful...took my breath away when the picture loaded! Fantastic!

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  12. It looks lovely. So pretty. I hope the different sized blocks don't give you any further trouble!

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