A String Frenzy Trunk Show!

Happy Last Sunday of November!

I feel like we are doing this String Frenzy Trunk Show thing a little bit inside-out, but it was too much to post along with Friday’s mystery post – and Thanksgiving was in the mix, and let’s face it – the books are still on a truck and haven’t arrived here yet!

So once again I am flying by the seat of my britches and shoveling this in on Sunday, so we can do our first Mystery Monday Link-Up for our Good Fortune Mystery tomorrow!

I’ve loved writing this book.  I’ve loved even more – making the quilts for this book, and I know this isn’t the end of my own love affair with string quilts.  String quilts are just the most fun I have ever had in my quilting life, and there is no stopping this string piecing train.

To get the detail photos for this post, I had to go back to my google photo albums, back to September of 2017 when I was getting the quilts ready to send off to photography for my Quilter's Date Keeper.  This book writing thing takes a LONG TIME!

And so my friend - this is what you are going to find within the pages of String Frenzy.

Crumb Jumble!

Close up!

Crumb Jumble started as a way to use up a bath of string and crumb blocks – Many that were dark or murky in nature.  The easiest way for me to combat the darkness, is to surround them with light – and I used light sashings and border chevrons to frame the blocks and lighten the top.  You’ll have fun digging into the scraps for this one!

Dawn’s Early Light!

Close up!

What isn’t there to love about a patriotic quilt?  Dawn’s Early Light was first a block for one of the Quiltmaker Magazine 100 blocks by 100 designers issues, and I knew right away that I wanted to play with this in big quilt size.  This quilt is Scrap User’s System friendly, and use of my Essential Triangle Tool will have you making those triangles quickly and easily – as always – my neutral stash knows no bounds, and I threw in everything – but perhaps the most fun I had with this quilt was designing the border.

And getting it to turn the corner just right!

Daybreak!

When I chose the name for this quilt – I must confess – the lyrics and tune to Barry Manilow’s song by the same name kept floating through my head. You get get your own earwork started HERE! (Thank you very much! You’re welcome!)

Close up of Daybreak

Four-patches are my favorite patchwork unit and there are many in this quilt!  I love the aqua background on the blocks and how the aqua inner border floats the whole quilt center before being finished with yes – MORE Neutral strings!

Emerald City!

It’s time to pull out all of the stops with the green strings.  Two color quilts have always been a favorite – so the neutrals and the greens really get a chance to play off of each other in this stunner.

And those neutrals are not boring at all!

Another confession – my neutral strings were reaching the level of barely nothing – so i went through old yardage, old fat-quarters and found things that would be interesting to add to the mix.  Because I use neutral strings all of the time, they can’t all come about organically – so I used my Accuquilt dies – both the 1’’ and the 1 1/2’’ size to strip down some more so I could keep string piecing – but also so I could give purpose to things that had been sitting on my shelf for far too long.

Your Essential Triangle Tool is going to get a work out for all of the many half-square triangles that appear in this quilt – but never fear, there is only 9 blocks!

Geese on a String!

Close up!

Geese on a string is inspired by an antique quilt I picked up several years back on an antiquing jaunt through North Carolina.  The fabrics in the original quilt inspired me to pull out the recycled shirt string bin and to make some wild and crazy stringy-crumby fling geese.  The rows of four-patches were not in the original quilt, but my love of them said MAKE THEM, and I obeyed!

Indigo A Go-Go!

Do you remember my working on this?

I shared the “re-found” indigo nine-patches and how I was making the string snow-balls in this quilt-cam post HERE!

There is a detail shot of the finished, quilted and bound quilt SOMEWHERE, but goodness knows I can’t find it between my phone and my google images. I loved using up those South African indigoes in this quilt – and can you see WHY my neutral bucket needed more enhancing??  How many yards of neutral strings did I end up using in the quilts in this book?  The world may never know…

Punkin’ Patch!

Close up!

I’ve heard from MANY of you that you’ve waited for this book specifically for the Punkin’ Patch pattern!  I’ve loved this one too!  So much fun digging into the orange strings, and using all of those gifted grays as background.  I love how the gray/green checkerboard border looks like vines and leaves at the edge of the field.

Sand Castles!

Close up!

More four-patches!  Splashes of color – and all of those sandy-toasty darker neutrals!  At the beginning of each pattern chapter I give a description of the quilt, and info on what inspired it.  

At the last minute I was able to get a dedication to Mark in for this quilt as it was inspired by all of those lazy hazy days spent on the beach in Santa Cruz California growing up.  I would love to see this in Christmas colors – I hope someone will make one!

Serpentine Web!

Used as the cover of String Frenzy!

Can you tell there are two slightly different yellows?

Yes, I ran out – and went with what was the closest I could find – and unless someone points it out to you, would you even know?  Or would you even care?

I had a blast making this more modern up-do on the traditional Spider Web quilt – the scraps in this quilt tell the story of the fabrics that have come through my life over the past several decades of my passion for scraps!

Silver Linings!

Close up!

All of those grays – SO MANY GRAYS!  You were all so over the top kind when at the end of our Allietare mystery I asked for “just a strip” from your cutting tables if you had any grays from Allietare left over – because I wanted to do a gray string quilt.  This is the quilt. 

And OH, the scraps that kept coming in the mail!  And it wasn’t just “A strip in an envelope with a standard stamp.”  It was bundles and bunches and fat quarters, and shirt sleeves, and yardage and OH. MY!!  I can’t thank you enough – there will be gray for more quilts for the rest of my life.

Lesson learned – NEVER ask for just “a strip in an envelope!”  You will find yourself buried! LOL!  (In every good way possible.)

Straits of Mackinac!

Pronounced Mack-in-Awwww!

Close Up!

Straits of Mackinac also started out as a simple (HA!) block idea in Quiltmaker’s 100 blocks issues.  I had just returned from teaching at the Grand Hotel Needleart Seminar and this was the colors I saw in the water – May 2016.  

I’ll be back again to teach THIS QUILT at the Grand Hotel this coming May – are you going to join me?  Not sure when registration starts, but I thought it was January.  Check their website for more info.

Aquas, blues, pushing all the way to periwinkle.  And oh, those favorite neutrals! 

And more neutral strings as border…just YUMMY, isn’t it?

XING!

'Xing' means STAR in Chinese.

Close up!

Little stars with crumb centers are set with alternate string blocks in a rainbow of color – like fireworks! Not a bit of yardage was harmed in the making of this quilt – it all came from crumbs, strings and strips from my Scrap User’s System. 

The aqua sashings are left from the Daybreak quilt you saw towards the top of this extra long post.  The little red cornerstones you can barely see? 1980s pin dot – all gone now!

The sashing was an afterthought – but when putting blocks together that have this many seams, sometimes the seam allowances just need a place to go so you don’t have to press them all back against themselves creating more bulk.  I was working from “Cabin Stash” and there was just enough.

If you have followed along the past couple of days, you know we blew through the first 500 Pre-Order copies of String Frenzy in 1 1/2 hours. 

I will be putting another 500 in the Quiltville Store for CYBER MONDAY, tomorrow.

Hunter’s String Star PDF Pattern FREE with purchase of String Frenzy!

An $8.00 value!

And don’t forget ALL of my previous titles (Before String Frenzy) Have been dropped to the low, low price of just 19.99 each!

ALSO happening tomorrow for CYBER MONDAY – ALL Digital Patterns in the Quiltville Store will be 25% off using coupon code DIGITAL25 at purchase.

This sale will happen as tomorrow's blog post goes live.  Be watching for it!

That INCLUDES the NEW Punkin’ Patch Table Runner Pattern!

So we’ll see you for tomorrow’s Mystery Monday Link-Up AND Cyber Monday – tomorrow, bright and early!

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Geese on a String quilt from String Frenzy!

I keep this mantra close at hand where it can encourage me and nudge me forward when I am in need of nudging.

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!