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String Quilts
Ladies,
I would love to make a string quilt. But am a little intimidated. I am very OCD on some things. So, I'm really looking for some info and advice. Do you cut your strings to a certain width. Or do you just use them as you pull them. Right now, I am sorting them by color. But they are all different widths, from about 1" to about 2 1/2" wide. |
If you use the same color and width for your center strip, then mix them all up for the others, you get a certain order amongst the chaos. I think they are prettier that way, myself.
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I have done them both ways. One color for the center about 2 inches wide, then random widths. I have also done them completely random.
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I allways start with either a 2" or a 2 1/2" inch width for the center of the block. Then what ever I pull out, random widths from the rest, any where from 1 1/2" up to 3". I don't pay any attention to color or patterns.
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It's really your choice. That's what's so fun about string quilts. You can sew with random abandon and the quilt will still come out amazing. ~ C
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I like to cut a telephone page into the final shape I want. I then sew my scraps onto the shape and then trim along the paper shape and remove paper. I can not do a random scrappy but do a controlled scrappy. I find it helps if I sort them into light and dark piles. I just alternate between the piles but sometimes have to re-select because my OCD won't let me put 2 fabruc next to each other that clash. It is putting colours together that clash that add movement to a scrappy but I just can't do it!
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We have an older lady in our Guild who specializes in using scraps for string quilts. She has used old dryer sheets, large commercial size round coffee filters and phone books as base for string quilts. They all come out wonderful! I wish I had a photo of one of her round ones, they end up looking like a dresden plate with a circle appliqued into the center.
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There's a good tutorial on this board for a quilt as you go version:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...lt-t60764.html |
I use phone book pages and sometimes control the use of color. All colors go together in the finish.
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Made string quilts at a local guild event and had one woman who couldn't put random fabrics together. We mixed them up in a brown bag and told her she had to use whatever she pulled out. She complained and fretted for the first block. When she saw it trimmed, she admitted how much fun and freeing that block had been. And she tried a second block. After that she never looked back. Just grabbed and sewed. Maybe you could just try a block or two in this fashion and see if loosens your grip on order:-) Also having the center strip stay constant helps give it some order and forms a secondary pattern when all blocks are sewn together.
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