I joined some members of the yahoo Libquilters group in an online retreat for a few hours today.I had a 26" length of "string" fabric that I made a while back and woke up thinking about cutting it up and making blocks . . . so I did.
It turns out that 26" is exactly what I needed to make the four units that make one of Gwen Marston's Liberated Wedding Ring Blocks. As I pressed the fabric, I started to second guess my plan to use a red paisley background because there were more red fabrics in my strings than I remembered. But, after I pulled some alternative ideas out of my stash and auditioned them, I still liked the red best, even if some of my blocks may be a bit muddled as a result.
I had enough strings to cut fabric for 14 blocks. After I've made them, I'll decide if the quilt needs to be bigger–I had originally been thinking of a big red bed quilt (for me!) but I also thought I had more of the string fabric. Here are the first six blocks.
They'll be set with alternate plain (red paisley) blocks.
This was also on my design "wall" today. It's bound (and even labeled–a promise I made to myself this year was to label every quilt–but I may add just a bit more quilting inside the letters.
Because my design "wall" is actually a curtain, the banner is waving a little. It is, in fact, quite square and flat. I'll have to try to get a better photo tomorrow.
Are you a design wall voyeur? Check out the links at the bottom of Judy's Design Wall Monday post for today for more completed projects and works in progress.
5 comments:
It has a nice antiquey look to it with the occasional fade into the background. I was thinking, hmm, that would look cool set alternating with plain red blocks, and your next sentence was about just that thing. *grin*
GMTA!
It's interesting that you connect those muddled blocks with antique quilts ... it's something I remember reading in Roberta Horton's book, Scrap Quilts: The Art of Making Do. While this time it's completely unplanned, I have consciously included those bad blocks in other scrap quilts ;-)
I was thinking I should have taken a photo of Gwen M's quilt from the book–it was made with a white background and has lots of beautiful, classic quilting.
it's lovely colouring.
But then I think the original strip fabric would make a great quilt without being further cut up.... I don't think I could bear to cut up something that's so beautiful in itself (although no doubt the end result will exceed it)
That's a clever way to use the strings--I like it very much! I am always on the lookout for string projects. nice!
Your blocks are great, Sophie. I love string blocks too.
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