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:

http://imquilternity.blogspot.com/2012/06/its-on-wall.html

 

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.  

http://filminthefridge.com/2009/04/27/a-string-quilt-block-tutorial-paper-pieced-method/

 

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