Strings Fun Day!

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One of my favorite workshops to host is a Strings Fun Day!

I supply all the fabric… all the ladies need to do is bring their sewing machines and get ready to have fun!

I love making strings quilts because they really are “free” quilts… and I like most things that are free!

What is a “String” in the Quilting World?

Once upon a time I assumed everyone knew what a “string” was. I was wrong… So here is my definition of a “string” in the quilting world:

Strings are narrow strips of fabric that you can use to make scrappy quilts

I like my strings to be no wider than 2 1/2″ and no narrower than 1″.

You may have leftover binding, or strips that you used to straighten up your fabric before you cut it into strips and squares.. these make perfect “strings”. They can also be strips that aren’t as long as the width of fabric.. any length is fine.

How Many Strings do you Need to Make a Quilt?

One of the fun parts of my strings workshops is dumping all the strings out on the table for my students to grab…

In fact my biggest mistake in this last workshop was dumping the strings out on the table before I did the demonstration.. because everyone was busy trying to grab the “best” strings when they should have been watching me, lol!! I will keep that in mind next time 🙂

And would you believe… the big pile above ended up in little piles around the room… and then of course the ladies were eyeing off each other’s piles in case there were better strings in them… you know how it is, the grass is greener and all that jazz! But there were no fights, everyone shared and there was lots of banter going on!

At the end of the class, when I went to put the pile of strings back in the bag ……… you could hardly tell that any of the strings had been used! There were 9 ladies, and each lady had enough to make 16 blocks… and still there was hardly a dent in the strings pile!

So you see, strings go a looooooong way… and it takes an amazingly short amount of time to collect them – if you save all your scraps.

Now years ago, when I did my first Strings Fun Day, I promised Alice I’d write a tutorial on how I do my strings blocks… That tutorial is really overdue.. but I have saved all my samples and will trying to work on that this month…

The Finished Strings Quilt

Here is one of the strings quilts finished…

Now wouldn’t it have been a pity if all those strings ended up in the bin?!