Scrap-A-Palooza! Quilt #8 Part Three

I think some of the best things about string quilts are the endless variations you can can create, the speed at which you can sew up a large number of blocks and the fact that you usually don't have to do a lot of cutting!  This month's Scrap-A-Palooza quilt was no exception.

 

 

 Last week I shared a tutorial on how to sew these strings onto a fabric foundation.  Here is my stack of forty two 10.5" blocks trimmed and ready to get up on my design wall.  I was so pleased to see almost all of the scraps I had in these colors get used up.

My original plan was to just sew all the blocks together but once I had them laid out where I could see them, I decided it needed a little something to break up the pattern.

I pulled some black fabric from my stash and added this "hashtag" inner border (I don't know what else to call it!) 

This border treatment works great when you are working with a pieced outside border as its addition doesn't mess up the math and require you to trim any blocks to make them fit around the outside.  I cut these strips at 1.5" so the finished border is quite small at 1" but I think it has a great impact.

I should note, when I sewed the top together, I pressed all my seams open.  With the extra layer of fabric, the seams can get a bit thick.

Here is the finished quilt top outside in the sunshine.  It is really hard to say if it is mostly yellow or green, the lighting really affects the colors on this one.

 

 

 

Here is a bit of a close up on the border.  The black fabric I used has a bit of a gray swirl printed on it.  I am now planning on using this print for the binding to tie it all together nicely.  I also made some time to sew up my backing so the quilt is ready for me to sneak it into the quilting queue.

While I don't yet know how I will quilt this, I will say I usually keep the quilting easy on my string quilts, especially the multi-colored ones.  The quilting just doesn't show up much.  Which also means I sometimes use these quilts to work out a new free-motion quilting pattern.

So I hope you try something slightly outside your comfort zone when you quilt up your string quilt.  They are perfect to practice on!

Here's an overview of the important stuff to do before the next step

• Decide on a layout
• Sew up the top
• Dig in that stash for a backing (it is in there - just keep looking!)
• Try a new quilting pattern - something out of your comfort zone.

And remember, you can check out all of the previous quilts made in the Scrap-A-Palooza series by checking out the gallery tab. Not only are the steps to each part linked up but I have also shared quilts made by others so you can find lots of inspiration to sew up those scraps.

 

I'll meet you here next week with my finished quilt!

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