Thursday, March 22, 2007

More string quilt photo's and designs

Strings quilts have long been a favorite of mine and this project fits in nicely with my interest in trying just about every variation I can think of. My favorite quilts tend to be very scrappy and usually from traditional patterns and string quilts certainly fall in both categories.

My first string quilt was made from a pattern in the book Great Lakes Great Quilts (my version was not nearly as bright as the one in the book).

Although I love multicolored string quilts, I frequently experiment with color. The colors for this next quilt were chosen after reading a magazine article that discussed using fabrics from half the color wheel in a quilt. Well they used the *warm* side but I tend to like the *cool* side better so I pulled all my blue, green, purple and yellow strings for this quilt.

Don't you love the scalloped border on this one? Anyone following my blog realizes that I do very little applique and no needle turn EXCEPT for these scallops (that means they're really easy!). This pattern was in an issue of Quiltmakers All Time Favorites for Kids magazine.

Another experiment in color led to this next quilt. I was making blue string blocks and as I got about 1/2 way through making the blocks I wasn't sure I was going to like the quilt. I searched through my books and came across an Hourglass string quilt in Gwen Marston's book Liberated Strings and decided that would work just fine.

Once I started cutting and sewing the hourglass blocks, I changed my mind about the original quilt and made both. You can see my Blue Strings here.

A more recent experiment with color came when I decided to make a quilt using a rectangular block. I pulled a border fabric from my stash that I'd been trying (unsuccessfully) to use in a quilt for several years and rummaged through my strings for all the colors in the border. Here you can see the first 4 blocks along with the border. The final quilt top can be seen here.

Some additional links for you to view:
You can keep up with my current quilts via my blog Making Scrap Quilts from Stash. Finally, Blogger and Picasa web albums play nicely together and have automatically created a web album with all the photo's posted to this blog. To view them all together click below (and bookmark) the HeartStrings Quilt Project blog album.

7 comments:

Carol said...

Mary thank you for sharing all your wonderful string quilts...I must get going on one...another addiction in my future I'm afraid.

Bonnie K. Hunter said...

I love seeing all the examples of different string quilts. I think the ideas are limitless! I have some rectangle blocks going with a black strip down the center. It is looking really nice. I am making it for a friend who is going through cancer treatments right now.

I love your idea of chosing a color palette. That's something I've never felt good at, so I do the kitchen sink version and throw in everything..*LOL*

Bonnie

Cher said...

love seeing all the photos here Mary...life is just extra busy right now for much blog reading on my part!

Anonymous said...

Mary:
I hae never left a comment on a blog, since I'm, not a "member".

The Heartstrings blog is fine. . . but I don't understand who can post to it. You are the "owner" I presume. So now you really have TWO blogs to keep up? Seems like extra work to me.

However, I enjoy both blogs.

Sara Homeyer

Karen (Misiz C) said...

I, too, have some border fabric that has patiently been waiting it's turn. I hadn't concidered a controlled palette. What a great idea! Love your example.

It's great to see all the photos. Seeing what others are doing sparks my creativity. Thanks!

Karen

Quilty bird said...

Mary, I love the way you have "grown" as a string quilter! All your work is nice, but the most recent stuff just floors me sometimes. To think that humble strings can end up looking so beautiful!

I was inspired to try a rectangular string quilt like your controlled palette one. I think me border print maybe doesn't have enough colors in it. Mine's not nearly as nice as yours. Well, live and learn, right?

Helen in the UK said...

You are feeding us with wonderful eye candy. Particularly love the wiggly lines on that you appliqued!!! Hadn't thought about the 2 sides of the colour wheel before, but I guess I stayed on the cool side for my string quilt without realising it :)