Blogger's Quilt Festival

The Blogger's Quilt Festival is on at Amy's Creative Side. Join in and take a look at all the wonderful quilts featured there.

My quilt is an original design I call Boxes of Strings.

Boxes of Strings 74" x 84"

Boxes of Strings (detail)

Boxes of Strings (backing and binding detail)

You can see how I made it HERE. NO Y SEAMS NEEDED!!😄

Thanks Amy, for the opportunity to share and to look at beautiful quilts from many other quilters.

Boxes of Strings--Variations on a Design

When I created the "Boxes of Strings" design, I was happy with my resulting quilt. Little did I know, however, that other quiltmakers would be interested in using the design as well.

I belong to the Quilting Board, a forum for quilters. When I posted the photo of my finished quilt and a tutorial about how I made it, another member asked if I would mind if forum members did a quilt-a-long with the design. I was thrilled! I knew I'd love to see variations, and this way, I wouldn't have to make several sample quilts myself.

The quilt-a-long thread begins HERE. The makers discussed and used various methods to create the blocks--it was fun to see several minds working on the project and coming up with the ways they chose to do it.

I asked them if I could show some of their progress (and finished quilts!) here, so you could see the results. Each photo links to the original on the Quilting Board.

 This beauty comes from Christine Y. in Hillsboro, OR. 

(Notice the feline Quilt Inspector is admiring Christine's work.)

Macybaby used her own technique to make these blocks--great for fabrics 

you'd rather not cut into strings.You can see how she did it HERE.

Tartan of Ontario, Canada, shows her in-progress version. She also used
an alternate way to put these blocks together. Check it out HERE.

Jane Reynolds of Orange County, CA, calls her version,

made from Kaffe Fassett fabrics, "KF Cubed."

Check out this version from Murphy 224--she calls it "Rainbow Boxes of Strings."

 What a great arrangement of color!

This wonderful example is from Gail Boothman of Smoky Lake, Alberta.

A link to the tutorial on the QB can be found HERE. A tutorial is also available HERE on the blog.

Thanks to all the quiltmakers who participated (and are still participating). I am truly honored that you used my design to create something beautiful of your own.

I'm linking with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Whatever Wednesday at Jo's Country Junction and Fiber Tuesday 162 at The Quilting Room with Mel.

Boxes Of Strings: An Original Design

Update: I have added the basic instructions for this quilt to my sidebar. Click on "Boxes of Strings Instructions."
 

When I was designing and making Stringing Beads, I thought "what if?"--always a dangerous thought for a quiltmaker!

The centerpiece of the Stringing Beads block is a trapezoid shape.

Stringing Beads trapezoid

What if I made it a triangle?

Boxes of Strings triangle

I used the same size paper foundation (4.5" x 8.5"), and I arranged the strings with medium/dark tone on one side and light on the other.

All blocks have the same color orientation.

It created a wonderful optical effect, I think--boxes and boxes and boxes!

Boxes of Strings 74" x 84"

A huge variety of fabrics add interest.

Boxes of Strings (detail)

Boxes of Strings (detail)

Boxes of Strings (detail)--Scooby Doo!

I used a solid backing and quilted around the diamonds and through the string blocks.

Boxes of Strings (backing and binding detail)

This was a lot of fun to create. The instructions are very like the Stringing Beads instructions found on the right sidebar of the blog. Just make a triangle template and arrange your colors, light and medium/dark, on either side of the triangle--all the blocks are the same. (In my case, the light strings are on the right side and medium/dark on the left of an upward-pointing triangle.)

Sometimes wonderful things come from those "What if?" moments!

I'm linking with Fiber Tuesday 147 at The Quilting Room with Mel and the UFO Challenge at Jo's Country Junction.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017 was hosted by soscrappy. Each month, we worked with a color--at the end of the year, I put my blocks together. Here is the result.

66" x 92"

Backing and binding (detail)

One of the months, we were to use multi-colored scraps. Because I wanted to stick with single colors in my Rainbow quilt, I used that month to create this quilt which I called Stringing Beads.

Instructions

 
During the month when we were to use neutrals, I worked on a couple of other projects. (I had used neutral strings each month in my rainbow-colored blocks.) One was my leader/ender project, and the other was a string quilt (as yet unfinished) which I call Boxes of Strings. I'll post instructions for it when I finish!

Leader/Ender Project--Two-Rail Fence

Boxes of Strings

Thanks so much to soscrappy for hosting this challenge.

I'm linking to ScrapHappy Saturday and Fiber Tuesday at The Quilting Room with Mel.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge--August--Neutral

Since I've been using neutral strings in my monthly rainbow blocks, I'm using this month for neutral scraps in other projects.

My Leader & Ender project this year is a two rail fence--I want to make an Attic Stairs quilt (or five!).

Attic Stairs--Click Image for Link

I've got LOTS of blocks already, so I'm thinking I'll just keep making them and see how many donation quilts I wind up with. I'm using scrappy color/scrappy neutral pairs.

One of a gazillion!

I've also been working on a "What if I...?" quilt. When I was making Stringing Beads, I thought, "What if I used triangles instead of trapezoids in the middle of the blocks?" "Okay, what if I offset the blocks?" "Hmmm, how about if I control the colors?" I was designing a new quilt before I even finished the first one!

Individual blocks

Here is what I have thus far:

I'm thinking of calling it Boxes of Strings. I'm going to consider borders--not sure yet how I will finish it.

So, neutral strings, neutral L & Es, and the Sapphire Stars Mystery from Kevin the Quilter includes neutrals in this clue (Clue #3)--I'm keeping up with the challenge!

I'm linking with Scrap Happy Saturday at soscrappy who is hosting the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Fiber Tuesday 125 at The Quilting Room with Mel .