January mini - a strings tryout

I'm thinking of making a large string pieced coverlet, so I made this little version as a tryout.  It was a lot of fun to foundation piece - 5.5 inch blocks on muslin.  Lots of indigo per usual!

I was not fussy about the quilting and I didn't even bind it properly but it served my purpose of trying out this idea before I enlarge it.

I tried out several arrangements, log cabin style:

There are many lovely January minis linked up by Wendy at The Constant Quilter!   And look at all the string projects Lori is linking at Humble Quilts! 



xo
Cynthia

Strings and strings and changes

Lori at Humble Quilts is doing a string QAL, and Wendy at The Constant Quilter is doing a monthly mini quilt challenge.... so.... this month I am combining the two...

And I must say, I may want to foundation piece string quilts a little bit every day for the rest of my life!  Soooo fun!  I'm using muslin foundations, and my usual - lots of indigo, with low volumes.  A pop of orange on each end too.  It is so satisfying to trim up the blocks using the foundation as my guide.

I've got a plan to make a large summer coverlet for our bed with 10 inch blocks; and in the meantime I'm making an itty bitty version, for starters.

What a difference setting makes - here are the same four blocks in two different configurations:

So, IN OTHER NEWS.... it looks like we are going to be moving back to Japan in the spring for David's job.  This has been swirling around as a possibility for the past couple months and now it's for real and I'm sort of stunned!  We just downsized to our cozy spot in the woods less than two years ago!  Now, we will be further downsizing into a shoebox apartment in Tokyo, ha ha, this time for three years.  Mixed feelings for sure.

Soooooo.... time to take off all the refrigerator magnets...

and do 1000 other things to get our house ready to list... including nearly dismantling my sewing room, sadly, but where there's a will there's a way, and I'm determined to steal a few minutes a day for these fun string blocks!

xo

Cynthia 

California baby quilt and quilter hysterics

David has an extended family "cousin" Christmas exchange, and this year, he drew his California cousin who just had a baby girl.

 I already had the blocks pieced and squared up using Sujata Shah's free form method from her excellent book Cultural Fusion Quilts.  So it was quick work to piece the top.

However....

I don't have pretty detail photos to show at this point - I have deleted them - because - in all my cleverness I appliqued the wrong name onto the front of the quilt - doh! Baby's name is Amina but I appliqued big sister's name Emony.   On the way to the post office with my son driving, I realized my mistake and quilter hysterics ensued!

There really wasn't a pretty way to remove these letters.....

So, time to create a patch in the form of a big hippie flower... this aqua print is from Japan and it is a scrap from the backing fabric.

All in all it's A-OK.  A sturdy utility quilt which is how I like baby quilts, something that can take hard use and lots of washings.  It is now wrapped and packed up a second time... sigh! and hopefully the line at the post office won't be too long tomorrow afternoon!