Di Ford Mystery Quilt

 I resisted for a while but then finally caved. I signed up for Di Ford's Mystery Quilt with Homestead Hearth and the package arrived in 2 days. I began working on it this week and almost have all my pieces ready to appliqué. Here is the center vase minus one section.

 I have now joined those making hexagons and began prepping them with glue. The last time I made hexagons was about 20 years ago and I basted the edges with thread. I also was not doing so much handwork then so did not get very far. I used the Bohin glue stick. These hexagons are small - 1/2"....

 but won't they be pretty when all sewn together?

You can see how small they are when I hold 28 in the palm of my hand.

I had to tea-dye the floral fabric for the flowers to fill the vase. I used instructions from an older Little Quilts book which was very simple. It turned out well. 

Hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend as we celebrate our risen Savior!

Scrappy String Bars

It all began with some leftover strings and a couple of grab bags from Homestead Hearth last year. I cut a lot of the fabrics into Tumbler shapes but always had some leftovers so my string stash began to  grow.

 I remembered my book Liberated String Quilts by Gwen Marston and found a quilt I wanted to make.

Gwen does not use a foundation for the string quilts so I just began sewing strips together.

 First in pairs of two, and I decided on an approximate length of 7+" so I could cut them down to 6 1/2" for my strips.

 The strings seemed to grow.

 Many were too short so I put them in this cute Moda tin to be another quilt later.

Here are larger sets. I just chose fabrics that I liked together - pretty random, though!

 I put them on the design wall to get the lengths similar as I continued to add sections together.

Next I auditioned some borders and chose red in the end with a narrow green border.

 I went ahead and sewed both borders together, knowing it would give an 'old-fashioned look' to the quilt because they both extend to the sides together.

 A close-up of the fabrics and quilting.

Here is the finished quilt! It will be a wallhanging and is quilted with random clams, similar to the Baptist Fan.

 I pieced the backing, as I frequently do, and even pieced the sleeve at the top.

Another close-up. I still have plenty of strings to make another quilt but I guess this made my stash shrink a little bit! Happy Stitching!