#string piecing

[quilting-is-my-new-hobby]

I realized recently that I was using my scrappy block of the month project as an excuse not to use scraps, but I have far more scraps than I need for that project alone, so I spent a couple of days ironing all of the strings I’ve been saving and processing the shorter pieces into sizes I will actually use.

The strings (well, about half of them anyway) went in this top quilt and 63 of the 5” squares I had cut from scraps went in the bottom quilt (along with a white checked fabric that has a texture to it that is cool but didn’t lend to mixing with other whites). I didn’t have enough of the white to make side setting triangles big enough to save the points on the edges of the bottom quilt, so I called it a design choice and just intentionally cut them off more before binding.

Overall, I am pleased with how they came out and definitely need to do a similar project in a few months to eat up more of those squares and strings!

Top quilt: 48”x60” Bottom quilt: 37”x48” Made July 2026

[flintandpyrite]

Foundationless string pieced border: how-to

Step 1: cut some strips of fabric 2x+1” as wide as your desired border width. I wanted a 2.5” border strip (which will become a 2” border with seam allowance) so I cut 6” strips. Then use your rotary cutter to wonky cut them into strings. The more wonky you cut them, the more interesting the finished border, but if the angle is too steep it becomes hard to truly improv because you won’t get a straight border.

Randomly sew 12-14 of these strings together, first in pairs, then in 4s and so on. The only rule I followed was to put thin ends against thick ends so each piece ended up a rough rectangle rather than a bigger triangle. Press the seams to one side with your iron:

Wonky, but not too wonky. When I place my 6” ruler on you can see that 5” fits neatly in the middle:

Trim off the excess from each side to make a straight 5” wide rectangle:

Cut the rectangle in half to make two border strips:

To join the strips you will probably have to square the ends of each or you won’t get a straight line. To do this simply use the right angle of the ruler to trim each end and sew together:

Then join them! If you make several string rectangles at once you can alternate so it looks really random. You may have to re-press the seams on the back once your border strip is done.

I learned this technique from the books of Gwen Marston, in particular her inspiring Liberated String Quilts, which you should definitely check out of the library, it totally opened my eyes to all these techniques I had never even considered. Also check out Freddy and Gwen Collaborate Again for more wild ideas.

[flintandpyrite]

Stripes!

[flintandpyrite]

An experiment

[the-laridian]

String pieced block quilt.

While the blocks were a ton of fun to make, I ended up with a whole lot of them - I got carried away - and then had to decide what to do with them. It was suggested I double-side the quilt. This probably would work with regular patchwork quilts, but for this one, the seams were absolutely murder and I couldn't get them to lie flat for anything. So it got done, but I'm not real happy about the end product. If I hadn't put the binding on, I'd seriously consider ripping it (yes, all the quilting) and just making a single side quilt out of it. 

But it sure does look cool, doesn't it? I mean that sincerely.

[the-laridian]

38 string pieced blocks complete. Halfway there!

[the-laridian]

2nd set of strip pieced blocks. They're just fun to make! Also they're real easy to make, which is good since I'm between other projects at the moment.

I went thru the stash and rediscovered a lot of cool fabrics, so the next step is to find a pattern that I can use them in. It'd have to be either scrappy or FQ-friendly. Or both.

[the-laridian]

@driftwoodskeleton tagged me days ago for WIP Something or other and I kinda forgot, but here's a project I've been working on the past week.

I'm a real scrap hoarder and I love using up scraps in anything, so I started doing these string blocks. It's a nice way to use up the leftover bits and pieces, and I can put these together at the end to make a really eye-melting quilt :P