Thursday, June 1, 2017

Hive 8 June Tutorial string quilt


Modified String Quilt

This is my 2nd year in the Bee, and I really enjoy these mini projects every month.  My family just bought a lake house in Massachusetts and I'm looking for a bright cheerful string quilt to use at the lake. 
I would like bright colors, I love purple, blue, yellow, green, aqua, pink, anything bright really.  Picture a bright cheerful quilt on a chilly evening at the lake in front the fire.

I want to highlight the borders around the block by using black and white strips like this quilt pictured by @imquilternity:
 
Below is a link to the tutorial I started with. In order to get the big black/white borders, you will need to modify the tutorial a bit.  In the middle, use two strips of different black/white fabrics.  Also, my tutorial uses a fabric base in place of paper piecing.  This is because I wanted 10" blocks, and my paper piecing papers weren't big enough.
For the colored strips, I varied the size of my strips from 1-2 inches.
 
 
I've provided a complete tutorial below:
 
You can use the steps below in place of the tutorial above, but I find it nice to have another view of the same process just in case its new to you and confusing.
You will start with a 10" piece white fabric.  You can use any white, it won't show.  In a pinch, you could use any light colored fabric. 
 
Here are my pictures as I went along:
 
1. Cut a bunch of 3/4"-2" colorful strips 2-15" in length:
 
2. Cut two 1" black/white strips.  These should be mostly white. Silver/grey are OK, but please, no brown:

 
3. Sew the two black/white strips together to form a 1 3/4" strip.  It should be at least 16".

4. Place sewn strips diagonally face up on the white fabric. The tutorial uses a glue stick to hold it down.

 
5. Start sewing colorful strips alongside each of the black/white strips to cover the fabric.  Instead of the glue stick, I pinned the first colorful strip thru all three layers to hold it down:

6. Open it up and iron. I like to iron as I go, but I like to iron :)   The ironing step is important because it makes the fabric taut so there won't be a bubble or crease.  These bubbles and creases cannot be removed.

 
7. Continue sewing strips, pressing as you go:



I found it easier to sew both sides together:

 
8. The finished block will be scrappy and colorful.  You can send to me untrimmed, or trim to 10".


 
Here are four of them together:

 
If you are driving along I84 in MA/CT, and want to stop by the lake for some refreshment and quilt talk, just ping me!

Jennifer
@jennquilts 
 
 
 


1 comment:

Kitch Kouture said...

Hi Jennifer, I'm in HIve 7 and would love to make some of your blocks also. When I sewed the two 1" strips together for the black and white center, they open to 1.5". Which is the more important measurement? The 1.75" width or the two strips cut at one inch wide. Thanks, Cathleen aka Kitch Kouture