Friday 14 January 2011

String quilt scrapbuster - and an everso small but nice giveaway!

For most of the past few months, my scrap pot has been looking like this:
Then I went to bed one night, woke up the next morning and noticed it had acquired a partner.

I didn't want to encourage a life-long friendship so knew I needed to do something about it fairly sharpish otherwise they'd be starting a family and then things would seriously start to get out of hand.

I also had/still have some fabric of which I have long outgrown/don't know why I acquired it in the first place but don't know what to do with.

How can you use tomatoes, bears dressed up as doctors about to perform an operation, reindeers skiing down mountains, lions with thermometers in their mouths (who thinks up these things?), carrots and sheep walking on crutches. I felt the answer lay in another string quilt.
But once I've made one style of quilt, I can't go back and just repeat it again. It becomes monotonous, I know what the end result is going to be and so I don't think I have learnt anything new.

So this time, the diagonal stripe across each square is my black and white cow hide print of previous quilts. I also measured in approx 1 1/2 inches from two diagonal corners and used the cow print so I've sort of ended up with cow print squares.
I still can't think of a better way to use up a complete cross-section of styles and colours of fabric that I am not particularly fond of. So long as the strip cut is narrow enough, I don't think the eye is drawn to any one part of the quilt.
And the sheep on crutches just merge into a whole.

For the back I just took two string squares, cut them on the diagonal and sort of did a pinwheel thing with them.

I hand-quilted it, individual square at a time.


And here it is getting cosy with the absolutely fabulous cushion/pillow cover that was made for me by Lori as part of the Flickr Pillow Talk Swap.



It makes me smile just looking at it because it is so happy and fun and all mine.
Thank you Lori.

P.S. First one to correctly guess my house in the header wins a whole wodge of my scraps! (Bit like spot the ball I know but isn't that half the fun?!)

8 comments:

  1. Love the strings, tomatoes and all (why DID you buy some of that??). Nice to see the cows again!

    As for your house...I DO have your address written down somewhere, but will refrain from cheating with Google maps :-) I'm ging to guess the house on the corner, lower right, at the start of the street.

    If I am right, you better include a healthy slice of doctor bears in my scraps! ;)

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  2. This is the first time I visit your blog, and it's fantastic!!. This post is really loving!
    Best regards

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  3. I just love that string quilt! I just finished a spider web quilt with the same purpose to use up scraps, altough you would never even see the dent in my pile!

    I am going to take a wild guess and say your house is the one with the little yellow car in the driveway.

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  4. There is a house at the top of the photo with the brightest orangy/rust colored roof....that's the one I am guessing it is.

    I love your string quilts. I've always wanted to make one.

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  5. The handquilting is amazing! I love everything about this quilt. I'm going to guess your house is they grey one with two chimneys in the middle of the street. There is a white car in front of it.

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  6. I am using some of my "why in the earth did I buy that!?!" fabric this month as the foundation for some crazy quilt blocks. It gets all covered up and used up fast (I have at least 3 yards).

    Your island looks like a great place to live. It looks like everyone has a greenhouse too. My husband would love it there.

    I would guess what house is yours but as my scraps are expecting twins, I will refrain. :)

    LOVE the quilt!

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  7. I am amending my guess! Bottom LEFT corner of street is what I had meant to type...must have got it backwards with you being on the other side of the world and all.

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  8. I can't believe you handquilted all that, it looks gorgeous. I really need to make a string quilt. Every time I see one, I fall deeper....

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