Sunday I pieced a dozen log cabin blocks for a friendship block exchange at the retreat next week. It felt so nice to be piecing again! I love appliqué, but I also love piecing. I've done very little piecing for a long time, and I missed it! 
I
didn't want to work on any of my appliqué as I'm saving it for the beach and the retreat, so I finally got around to dealing with my strings. I've been stuffing strings in baskets for years and years. I'd no idea how many of them there were! They were in a tangled, wrinkled mess - I had no idea there were so many of them. I had to start by pressing them - at least enough to get started. Then I found an old phone book ala Bonnie - I knew I had at least one around here - and cut out big squares. By the time I got to sewing I found time to make only two blocks. I wanted to see how they would turn out, because these are all really ugly fabrics. At least ugly to my 21st century mind. They are almost all from my 80's calicos - fabrics I gave away to charity about 5 years 
ago. It's neat that I'll have bits of those fabrics in a quilt this way - and they don't look ugly at all in the string blocks. I'm already thinking how I'll set them together. Maybe with black? Or how about cheddar? As Bonnie says, cheddar goes with everything!
7 comments:
There is just no slowing you down, now is there?!? You have accomplished SO much. Good for you!!
Welcome home!
These look great, I want to do some string piecing also, alas, no time to do everything I think I need to do! Old phone book, what a great idea!
Oh my! I really enjoyed your photo of all the baskets on the table! So many strips, so many memories - a string quilt is the perfect answer! You could try going to webshots and doing a search for string quilts to come up with setting ideas! I love webshots for that. And of course, log cabins are one of my favorites - are you all swapping log cabin blocks? Great idea to get more scrappiness, if you are!
Welcome home! I like my home-body routine too. I was just telling my DH how much I like to sit down and cruise around the blogs to see what everyone is up to.
Cheers!
Evelyn
Lovely to see this all.. and special your Featherweight... It is a beauty. I have also one but it is displayed at my mantelpiece... I really need to sew with it :c)
Oh your string blocks look wonderful! I started some - hmmm, I have to get back to doing those again too! Have fun on your retreat!
I love the strings - I see you piece them to paper - I use muslin so I don't have to rip it away - they turn out a nice weight but not too heavy.
LOL..that tangled mess is why I have yet to liberate my strings Patti! But it is so much fun to remember where all those fabrics came from...happy to hear you are enjoying that piecing. And the blocks are turning out great too!
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