Quilty Pleasures-This String Quilt is Hot

It was cold when I started making this string quilt, so I must have been over compensating when I chose its colors. Those are definitely colors to make someone feel nice and warm! If you want to know more about how I picked the colors for this quilt, click this link.

Anyway, it's done and ready to be used as a model for the string quilt block workshop I'll be hosting at ThreadBear in Las Vegas on April 26.

String/strip quilt blocks are fun to make. They are a totally mindless endeavor, perfect when you want to make a quick quilt with little fuss.

I was going to use the sunflower fabric for borders, but when I auditioned it, the quilt looked way too busy, so it's part of the back along with a neato red batik I bought at ThreadBear.

This is the sunniest, warmest quilt I've made in a long time and it makes me happy just looking at it.

If you're interested in learning how to make quilt blocks like these, sign up for the class, because we're going to have some fun!

Quilty Pleasures: A String Quilt in the Making

Do you suffer guilt while shopping at your favorite Local Quilt Shop? Do you say, "I really don't need any more fabric." And then buy it anyway, guiltily, just because you like it? A lot?

Me, too, but I don't feel guilty about this one which I picked up in Prescott, Arizona last summer. It was calling to me. I had to have it!

It's called Sunflowers (duh) designed by Leers for Clothworks.

There were no plans for this fabric, so it sat around in my stash waiting for its moment. Now its time has arrived along with other fabrics patiently standing in the wings.

Using the dots on the selvage as my color guides, I started pulling from the stash until a nice assortment of coordinating fabric was piled on the cutting table. 

If you don't have a big stash, there's nothing stopping you from buying quarter yard cuts of fabric from your local quilt shop. Just saying.

Then I cut strips, the smallest 3/4 of an inch, the largest 2 1/2 inches and various in between. I ended up with a grocery bag full of strippy goodness. At the quilt retreat I attended a couple weeks ago, people would peer into the bag and say, "Oh, how pretty!"

From these strips came some colorful blocks which will find their way into a quilt this week.

That original fabric? It will be the quilt's border.