Red White Blue Lightning

     I made this string quilt a while ago, but it has been sitting on a hanger waiting to be quilted. My grandson asked me for a quilt for his uncle Greg who is a veteran and coming to a Veteran Day Assembly at his grade school. Ethan chose this one and I quilted it in sort of a no nonsense, not fussy patterns. 
     The backing needed piecing because I wanted to stay with the RWB theme. I tried a bunch of layouts on my kitchen floor and sewed it up. I could not get any glamour shots because of the weather, so I will try for one outside when it improves. Sorry for the blurry front.

Inching along

     Not sure why, maybe a cold and neck pain, but I have been just crawling through what I want to do. I added the blue side triangles to the RWB zig zag and sewed the first couple zig columns. The Robert Kaufman app works!

More Exploding Squares- on the fence

     I have made dozens of the exploding squares quilts with all different starting sizes and scraps. This one uses thin sashings- 1 1/2". I thought the squares were so busy that they needed some relief and I think I was right. I bought a large piece of fabric back at our quilt show in the fabric pool and it was perfect for the back. Someone just gave me a hunk of fabric last week that was perfect for the binding. Quilted with Glide on top and Omni in the bobbin.
    First the beauty shot- I draped it over my little rail fence and took advantage of a rare sun moment. Then I went to my neighbor's fence and shot the whole quilt, front and back.

     I have finished all the string blocks for the RWB zig zag lightning quilt. I used the Robert Kaufman app to figure out the size of the setting squares and corner squares and will be cutting them out of a blue mottled fabric.

Bursting with starts

     After finishing the three tops at the retreat, I started new ones. One of them will be a vet quilt- Red White Blue scraps- a string quilt I discovered in an older quilt book I got at a library discard sale. I am using the papers from Missouri Star- they are thin, strong, and don't wrinkle. I have 24 of the 36 string blocks I need. Kind of a cool quilt.

Here is the book I got the idea from and some sewn blocks.

One of the four zig zags needed

      Another quilt, Katie's quilt from MSQC, was started. I have all 16 patches and 4 patches done. I need the white rectangles and triangles cut and sewn yet.

The last start is one I need my head examined for. I fell in love with the quilt, Harvest Dawn, at a store and foolishly bought the pattern. It is a Judy Niemeyer one and I already have Sea Urchin that is stalled. It seemed like it was a shorter and easier one and in the heat of the fabric moment, I bit. I have all the pieces in the right bags and now have to paper piece them. I can't even tell you how long I took to piece these 4. I will just have to take one bag at a time forgetting what has to be done and chip away at it, regardless how long it takes.

String based Quilt sewn up!

     On page 30 of Cultural Fusion, there is a quilt called Toran. It is a little unusual. It uses string pieced blocks layered and free form cut with solids. I liked the look. I have a lot of string scraps and I wanted to use them in a different way, so this was perfect. I had some 10" squares of light paper from Missouri Star Quilt Company, so I used those for the strips and it worked very well. I was able to trim the final blocks to 9" instead of the book's 8.5", so that helped with the quilt size. I also made the quilt rectangular, 4 by 5 blocks. It is a great lap size. I will not put a border on it. The one in the book had a piano key border, but I like the quilt just like this. 
     I think it will be fun to quilt. Have to make a back first. I shot some photos of the steps if you are interested- might help understand how the quilt was made. Page 30 is worn out in my book. At first you may dismiss the quilt, but it has a curvy flow that I really like. I made the free form cuts more curvy than the book because I wanted the curve flow.

String block, solid, string block, solid layers,
free form curve cut- 4 in a set 

Top string piece to bottom, revealing 2nd layer solid 

Pressing the curve seam flat first, then rolling the top back and pressing the block

Initial sample blocks to view

Layout on wall 1

Layout on wall 2

All sewn up and pressed!

Trying it out

   I love to try new ideas. I have to force myself to just do trials so I don't just jump into projects and decide I don't like it when I am too far into it. In between all the machine quilting, I tried two ideas. I had ordered some thin paper from Missouri Star Quilt Company to try as foundation paper for string piecing. The papers are 10" and nice and thin. They had free shipping, so 250 sheets for $9.95 seemed like a good idea. I sewed four of them to see what I thought. I don't like all the waste when trimming.  I can't figure out how to use those random half sewn pieces. When trimming, the paper was not a true 10", maybe because it got distorted sewing? I used my square ruler and cut it 10". After looking at them on the design wall, I am not sure I like it. I think maybe because I usually work with small scraps. Maybe I need to cut the papers down to 8"? It wasn't speaking to me. Comment if you have any thoughts.

   The other idea was from Missouri Star Quilt Company's new video, Silly Goose, which is so simple you could laugh. I sewed six squares, but I made mine 6" white, with 3" squares for the corners using scraps. Before I cut off the triangles, I sewed a second seam to hold them together, and I got bonus half square triangles that I can use in my crumb quilts. I really like this, but I am not crazy about so much white. How about a subtle print or blender?

Six 6" blocks on the design wall to see the Silly Goose pattern

The bonus squares from the edges, sewn before cutting, about 2 1/2"