Hive 5 April Tutorial - Foundation Pieced String Quilt

 2021 and 2022 alike have been the year(s) of the wedding table quilt. I have been piecing and quilting up a storm preparing a dozen table quilts for reception decoration at my September wedding. I’m finally down to the last one—this is where Stashbee comes in. Together we will make a foundation pieced string quilt table topper.

My wedding colors are dusty blue and cool brown. I have a wide variety of tones and saturations in my completed tops but in general aim for muted tones of blue, brown, and cream. No kitschy novelty or licensed fabrics. I’d prefer all unique fabrics if your stash can support it, but no worries if you need to repeat a couple. 10-13 fabric strips should cover it.

Our foundation is a 10 in square. Fabric doesn’t matter here at all; the entire thing will be hidden away under strips. Be sure that nothing shows through your strips, though. I used one from an old layer cake set. From all the selected blue, brown, and cream fabrics cut random width strips. I used widths ranging from 1.0 in up to 2.5 in. Feel free to go smaller, but keep the max width at 2.5 in. The length needs to be enough to cover the 10 in square diagonally at the spot you decide to place that specific strip. Make sure that the entire foundation piece is covered in the end. Use all 3 colors, but don’t necessarily use them in equal amounts. Humans naturally love order and patterns, but try to keep it wild. The end goal is loosely coordinated chaos. 

Start with a long strip. Place it face down running diagonal down the middle of the 10 in square. You can start in the exact middle or off-center, whatever feels right in your heart. Stitch with a quarter inch seam.

Start adding more strips down on one half of the square. The edges will get funky. Ignore them for now. 

Once the first half is done, repeat on the other. Eventually, your 10 in square will be entirely covered in strips.

The last step is trimming. Turn the block face down and trim off the strip edges using the foundation as a guide. Your final block should be 10 inches.

And you're done!