Each day we learn something new. Today, I learned several things including, that I can still surprise myself. Back in December 2018, I posted about using up some surplus fabric strips. I was in a red and orange mood and found quite a bit of patterns to work with. I photographed some of the blocks in progress. They do look very cheerful, don’t they!?
Let me pause to mention that I enjoyed Barbara Brackman’s blog article this week on the history and regionalism of string quilts. If you’re not already familiar with her expertise then let me bring you up to speed. She’s a quilter, quilt historian and author. She has a specialty in Civil War quilts with tremendous knowledge of all things fabric. She will blow your mind with her detailed research into quilts, fabrics, quilt makers and more. This week she mentioned that strip quilts are “pieced of irregularly shaped strips” while string quilts are when the “strips seem to be the same width.” In addition, it seems that antique string quilts are considered Southern in design. I’m from Southern California, but I don’t think that is what she’s talking about! I guess if I’m being precise and historically accurate (not that we quilters follow a rule book), my work here ought to be called a strip quilt top.
I obviously hadn’t seen this quilt top in a long time. Today, I went to my closet and proceeded to take photographs before donating it to Covered In Love. Imagine my surprise as I’m looking through the lens and I see a heart!!
I forgot that I had finished this strip quilt into a heart design. Crazy me, I needed to turn the quilt and photograph it the right way!! LOL- I literally laughed out loud. Here’s the quilt photographed the right way!!
It’s finally the end of August and time to send in my CIL red, white and blue star blocks. You may recall these are just some of the blocks that I’ve shared which are being sent.
I plan to slip this scrappy quilt top into the box along with my total of 29 blocks. (I might have made one more if only I had been counting as I sewed!) I hope these blocks and the quilt top, once made into quilts, will bring solace to families in need of comfort.
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Love this layout of your string blocks! At a local thrift store I found some strip quilt blacks (just 9) that someone had pieced out of polyester double knit, and have been playing with the layout. Thankful more ideas–although at this point I also know I need some more double knit fabric to make it big enough for a quilt. Need a time machine!
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Oh what a great find to have strip quilt blocks. I think you can use regular cotton to finish some more. That would add some more texture into the new quilt. You will have lots of fun with that. I do love a heart layout, especially for a quilt going for charity. See I have 5 boys in my house so anything red, hearts, girlie etc… is what I crave every now and then!
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What a great find and that was interesting the difference between strip and string blocks. Your heart quilt is beautiful as are all those pretty blocks with reds and blues.
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Right? I agree that the difference between strip and string was never obvious to me. I still flub when describing my quilts, but at least I now know the difference. thank you for the compliment and for stopping by on my blog. I hope you have a great day!
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Your strip quilt turned out beautifully!!!
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Thanks so much. I’m very happy with how it came out. It makes me even happier to know it’s going to a good home somewhere for CIL. I have 5 boys and a hubby- not a lot of appreciation for red heart quilts here in my house!!! So off it goes to bring cheer somewhere else.
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How lovely to be surprised by one of your own projects! The string heart quilt is great. I’m more often than not left mystified by my UFOs! What had I been planning to do with these fabrics/blocks? 😀
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Allison, I know exactly what you mean. We get off to a great start and then lose our train of thought. I always intended this quilt top to be for charity. At one point I imagined actually quilting it on my machine, but that never happened. If we waited for that to happen… well, it would be like waiting for pigs to fly! I know Kat will make it into a soft and inviting quilt. I could keep making strip quilts forever with my box of strings! Thank you so much for stopping by.
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Super cute quilt top and stellar blocks for Covered in Love!!
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Thanks so much. I can’t wait to see what Kat and her team does with the quilt top. It feels good to get one UFO out of the house to where it needed to be!
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I love all your string blocks! I recently got out a string UFO and discovered I was one block short, too….
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Pat, Thanks so much for commenting. Don’t you love rediscovering your own creations!? I sent my heart quilt off to Covered in Love. She wrote that it arrived today. It feels good to have made it and now passed it on to someone who will find the right recipient. I could make more of those quilts and never run out of scraps. I’m sure there’s another one in my future…soon.
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Thank you for sharing your beautiful quilt top and amazing star blocks. More than that, I so appreciate you mentioning Barbara Brackman! I love learning about the history of quilts and you have introduced me to a new-to-me resource! I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you for this! Thank you so very much!
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I am thrilled that you have discovered her now!! I eat up all of her blog posts. I seldom read one without learning someThing new. I also adore antiques and love hearing stories about the quilt makers and their descendants. She’s brings the quilts to life by telling us details about that type period. Some of the women she has written about have been such inspiring people. That plus the history of fabrics used… its all incredible information. Even if I didn’t make quilts, I would still love reading her well-researched articles. So welcome to the Barbara fan club!! Thanks so much for posting tonight. I’m off to sleep with a smile on my face!
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