Granny's Strings

 This is a quilt top that my mother-in-law made about 12 years ago. Her health was failing but she loved to sew and quilt and always learn new techniques. I showed her how to string piece these blocks and she was using her favorite colorway - pastels. She loved pinks and blues, but also red, so you can see lots of little red strings thrown in for a splash of color.
I am going to finish this quilt top and make a quilt with probably 48 blocks.

This was her only UFO when she died as far as quilts were concerned. She loved to piece the tops and then I would quilt them for her on my trusty Bernina sewing machine. No longarm back then! Above are the strings and pieces of fabric she had in the little plastic shoe box with the quilt top.

 Last night I began pressing all the strings and sorting them by size and separating the whites which always go down the center.

 I began piecing some more blocks, working on four at a time. The paper I am using comes on a roll and is 8.25" wide. I've had it a long time and it was sold to be used behind machine embroidery. It tears away very nicely.

 I just keep adding various colors, being sure I cover the paper plus a generous seam allowance on the outside of the paper.

Here you can see I've left plenty of fabric because my seam allowance is outside of the paper.

 Here is a block that has been trimmed on the left, with 1/4" seam allowance.

And here is the finished block. I like to leave the paper intact until after I sew the blocks together, mostly because the seam are on the bias and the paper keeps it from stretching out of shape. I think I am going to have to take her blocks apart, press them well and put them back together. Because of her failing health, they will not lay flat and I want to put the quilt together as she would have wanted it. She was an expert seamstress in her younger days and loved to quilt and have things very neatly done.
This Feb 8 will be ten years since she passed away. I am going to show some of her other projects in a couple of days to honor her love of sewing, quilting and embroidery and sharing her gift with many others.