String "H" blocks

Nita,

Since I have been the hostess for the washed swaps on Yahoo (2+ years) I do wash the fabrics I swap.

I always wash batiks before using them in a quilt.

Most of my scraps are now a mix of washed and unwashed. Most of the strings are from my past WASHED swaps.

Well, I have went and done it again. I am hooked on another version of string blocks. The versatility and fabric/stash busting value of string blocks just cannot be beat!!!

And yes, that is my version of Jamestown Landing being assembled. I have a bad habit of making ALL the units for a quilt and then putting all them away in a box. This has been sitting and waiting for assembly ever since the pattern came out. (designer is Our Bonnie Hunter of course)

In an effort to find any pitfalls of making these blocks I became a guinea pig. I consider myself a competent string block maker. But this 45 degree angle can make you cut your strip off too short if you try to eyeball the edge before folding the strip out.
I eliminated most of that issue by cutting my foundation papers a bit larger than Michele Foster has in her tutorial.
http://quiltinggallery.com/2013/02/20/tutorial-scrappy-herringbone-quilt-block/

Michele was trying to be frugal with her expensive leave-in foundation papers. We are not using those type of foundations. We are using removable papers. And telephone book pages are free!!!! So I cut my foundations 4" X 8.5" instead of 3.5" X 8.5" as Michele recommends. Problem solved.
And by cutting this way I can get a matched set of lefties and righties all ready for sewing.
Note to self...use a waste piece of paper under foundations to avoid pencil marks on the cutting mat.

  They look so rough before trimming!!!!

 And so nice when done!!!

String piecing can be messy. And I have one cat who is bound and determined to kill herself by eating threads. She knows I am watching her watch me for any lapse in my concentration on just where she is at during the sewing process. This is the same cat who ate two quilting needles with quilting thread attached. The thread wound around the base of her tongue and the needles lodged in her stomach. She had to have abdominal surgery to fix this...my fault. It will never happen again if I can help it!!!

Another perfect loaf of wheat bread came out of the bread machine. 

 XOXOOXOXOXO Subee

Slow progress...

I love all aspects of quilting with the single exception of row assembly. I have a wonderful design wall. The ironing board is handy. I have the assembly pattern to look at. But grrrrrrrrrrr!!!! I find this step so unfullfilling. Why? I do not know.
Below is my progress today. Not too much to show for all the work I feel I have done.

On the left side is my tiny BowTie with Kona Snow as the background. The "ties" are made from a charm pack that Tazzie sent to me. I am thinking of setting it on point. I did enjoy sewing this one together. Go figure......

Working on Jamestown Landing

I love back to school time. Even better is Clearance BTS sales!
I bought 10 of these cute little pink pencil boxes.
They fit my 1 1/2" squares as well as these 2 1/2" HST for Bonnie Hunter's Jamestown Landing quilt that was in the Australian magazine.
It only took a few hours of cutting to give me way more than what I needed to begin sewing. I had cut the 2 1/2" strips when that magazine first came out. I slipped them into a big baggies and saved them for the next quilt. I had even done the math to figure how many strips I needed to get the 840 units I needed. I added a few more for mistakes and ended up with this lovely container full of units!

 And then I surprised myself. I was all ready to dig through the swap fabrics from Smith Mountain Morning. When I opened that large container I found my results from the Leader/Ender cutting I had mentioned a few posts back. They were all ready for me! WHOOOHOOOO!

 I am so very lucky that I am detail oriented. It makes scrap sewing so much easier!!!!

 Here I am all ready to sew. The picture for oggling at, full containers of units and a rainy cool day for watching the squirrels and chipmunks fight over the birdfeeder. They are so funny. The cats just watch the birds and squirrels. But when the chipmunks come to the feeder my cats go crazy! Guess they must look tastey!

 Since I am OCD about being an organized quilter, I have a small basket behind the machine to catch the HST. I clip between "like" fabrics. Some of the blues had only 4 cuts. But some also had 10 or more. I want them to be scattered in the quilt, so if I keep track of them now, I can be sure that they stay scattered when I begin the row assembly.
I already have the string blocks made. And the ladies from my guild have donated more phone books to my collection. I remove the spine and cut them down to the best size depending on the original size of the phonebook page. And remember...they are already numbered so you will know how many pages you have! WHOOOHOOOO!!!!!!

And here is my sweet Pearl relaxing in her custom made Michael Miller fabric catbed. She did have her paw stretched out before I went for the camera. Of course she then moved. Her eyes are the palest blue and I swear she has eyelashes. Ole' bedroom eye Pearl. Hubby calls her "Pick on me Pearl". Macy runs her off. Just because...Macy is (at times) a big bully!