Orca Bay, Part 2!

It’s a blue string day!

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And it’s not a big step--just a fairly easy, dig in the scraps kind of step!

If you are going with a different color scheme, remember that you are using whatever color you are replacing my blues with.

This is my bin of blue strings! Oh what variety it holds! I’ve sewn and sewn and sewn from this bin, and it does NOT go down --- Forget the fountain of youth, I believe I found the fountain of fabric!

**Note** If you do NOT have strings --- you can cut strips. Start at 3/4" and go up in 1/4" increments all the way to 2". You can even taper them so they start wide and end up narrow. You don't even really need to measure for these, just go for variety in size. This is a great way to use up those "What was I THINKING?!?!" fabrics!

A little bit about string piecing and why I like to use paper as my foundation --- First off, it’s FREE because I use junk paper. Even left over printed on printer paper works just great.

How about all these left over flyers from the November Cruise? I had a whole stack of these, and after the cruise was sold out, I just set them aside! The left over papers were 5.5” X 8.5” --- It seemed a shame to throw them away! I’m not sure how Pat feels about having her face stitched through, but I like this picture of us – LOL!

And don't mind that yucky blue towel...it covers my June Taylor press n cut board and when it gets dirty enough I take it off and wash it ---but it keeps that canvas on the press n cut board from getting really gross and nasty, or worse, rotting off. I just took an old bath towel that had been designated as "car wash" worthy, folded it in half and sewed two sides, and slipped the press n cut board inside it. Works wonderfully! Even if it is a 10 on the ugly scale ;c)

I also love to use phone books---when they show up at the end of my driveway it’s a bonus day and off to the sewing room they go!

Many people like to pick up the doodle pads from the Dollar Store. It’s unprinted newsprint in tablet form, and is also an inexpensive way to go.

Some like tissue paper, or pattern tissue --- you can even use old dress making pattern tissue for your string piecing ---- got any old patterns you were going to toss? Use the tissue!

When I string piece on paper, I use a denim needle, about a size 14, which makes BIGGER holes in the paper. I set my stitch length VERY small, about a 1.5 on my Bernina or on the Janome. You’ll have to test your machine to find out where best to set it. You don’t want the paper falling off too quickly, but it also needs to be removed EASILY without pulling on the stitches.

For this step you are going to need 72 3.5” foundation squares. I know these might be small to you, but they play a significant part in the quilt, and the direction of the strings adds so much play and motion!

And because these units ARE smallish --- I don’t want to piece on interfacing, dryer sheets or muslin, and leave any foundation in there because these units are going to be heavy enough with seams as it is. I don’t want bulk in the corners where these units are joined to other units in the quilt.

My rule when it comes to the string size is NO wider than 2”. And 2” is pushing it..believe me! This is a small block, so try to use a variety of string sizes. If your strip is too wide, simply cut it in half and have TWO of them!

Lay a strip down the center of the paper foundation on the diagonal, from corner to corner with right side up. Place a second strip on top of it with right sides together. Be sure your stitch length is set very small ((Try 1.5 just to test it out)) and sew the entire length of the top strip. I try to have my strips go at LEAST 1/4” beyond the end of the paper.

My other rule for myself, even with these small blocks? The Minimum number of pieces per block is FIVE. There is no maximum number, but I try to have my corner seams no closer than 1” or so from the corner. The corners are a GREAT place to use your crumbs, left over triangles ((Think of all of those corners you’ve clipped from joining lengths of binding on the diagonal! – Yes, I save those--- I already know how sick I am!!)) and other small bits.

Even the millennium fabric went into this blue string block! Another left over triangle crumb will finish that last corner….

Another reason why I love paper foundations? They give me a SIZE GUIDELINE to shoot for! I instantly know if a piece is going to be big enough to go where I need it to go or not.

There are lots of different techniques for sewing width of fabric yardage strips, all cut on the straight of grain together into a big huge panel and then sub cut these into your 3.5” units.

But sometimes in life there HAS to be a technique and a time for us to use this little stuff that we have saved for so long. And what I love the best about digging into my string and crumb bins is the instant variety readily at hand in there! I didn’t have to spend hours cutting this stuff --- I just had to cut my paper foundations and I was ready to sit and sew! I love playing in the scraps, seeing how this fabric will play next to that one, remembering what project it came from so many years ago, or who it was that donated that scrap --- or were these the pieces I cleared out of everyone’s trash bags at retreat?! Hehehe, I’ll never tell!

I don’t care about how “New” or “Old” the fabric is. As long as it is blue. And blue means it can have other colors playing ON the fabric, but in most cases the background of the fabric is blue. It might be blue with green frogs, but it still reads as blue. My blues go from sky blue to aqua blue to medium blue to periwinkle almost purpley blue to royal blue toward navy and everywhere in between. I tried to stay away from blues that read “nearly black” because I was afraid they would blend in too much WITH my blacks.

I used my Janome machine for this step because I love the thread cutter feature. But if I were sewing on a machine without that cutter, I’d just piece on two blocks at one time, using each as the leader/ender for the other, keeping things going round in a circle to help avoid all the thread mess that can come with sewing short seams. Working on TWO is a lot easier than working on a whole chain of 72. Believe me.

Add a strip to one block. Chain a strip onto a second block. Clip the first block from behind the presser foot. Press. Bring it forward and sew another strip on to it. Clip block 2 from behind the presser foot. Press. Add another strip to block 2 --- and clip block 1 off from behind the presser foot. Get it? When one block is completely full, start on block 3, etc…No long tangled chain of blocks to deal with!

One block! Four Blocks! All ready for trimming. Two of the blocks have 5 pieces – the minimum I set for myself. One has 6, the other has 7. Just fill them up and go for the variety factor!

To keep myself from boredom, I’ll piece a stack of blocks, maybe a dozen or so ---and then trim them. I like the Easy Square Jr ruler, it’s easy for me to lay the ruler on the paper side of the block aligning the top and right sides, and trim up the side and across the top without moving the block. From there I flip the block over, and use the 3.5” measurement on the ruler for trimming the remaining two sides.

Trim a batch, and de-paper a batch right then and there. I don’t want to wait until I have all 72 3.5” blocks sewn and trimmed before I remove the paper..I like to see progress!

Aren’t they so cute?! Don’t go sewing them together yet, though – they are just laid this way for effect!

You will be amazed that 72 blocks does not even make a DENT in the fabric ---Seriously!

That’s it for Part 2! Remember to come back on Monday and share your progress on our Mystery Monday Link Up post---As I write this, we had over 75 Mystery Quilters share their part 1 units with us!

Click HERE to see--

And just so you can flip back to see past Mystery Monday Link Up posts --- I’ve added those links to the Orca Bay Tab at the top of the blog too, so you can always come back and see what others are using and how they are coming along. Won’t you share YOUR link with us on Monday?