Enough Strips and Strings!

It all started innocently enough, with a picture in a quilt magazine that caught my attention.  It was a quilt made of diagonally strip pieced blocks.  What made it special was that little prairie points had been added in, between a few of the rows.  Also, the strips were all widths and crooked which appealed to me.  So ..... I made a little four block wall hanging (and made it fit with the theme of a challenge I had entered!)

When Gayle, VP of the Tar River Piecemakers Quilters Guild in Rocky Mount, NC, asked if I had something I'd be willing to demonstrate to the guild, I told her "string piecing".  Then I proceeded to make some other samples and to try to get my thoughts together for a hand-out.

I made the fall colored blocks, pieced using phone book pages for foundations:

They became a table runner and I gave all of the measurements on my hand-out so everyone would have a "pattern" to take home.

Last, but not least, I had a little fun with triangles.  Included in this part of the lesson was how to use the 60 degree line on a regular ruler to draw out a pattern for an equilateral triangle if you don't have a triangle ruler.  Here's where I started out.

And here's what I ended up with.

The demonstration was part of the guild meeting on Saturday.  One of my other visual aids was a full size quilt top made of string pieced blocks that was sashed and bordered.  Sorry, I don't have a picture.  It was donated to the guild's charity committee after the demo because HONESTLY, I had pieced it 15 to 20 years ago and if I hadn't finished it by now, I never would!!!

None of these ideas were new or earth shattering, but I wanted to show people ways to relax and play with their scraps.  The guild has members there of all different ability levels, so some had done strip or string piecing before and some had not.  I'd like to free people from the idea that they always have to have a pattern or a kit before they can get started.  Just have fun!

Enough of strips and strings for a while.  On to something new.