I have needed a fairly mindless project for the last few weeks. Rather than a crumb quilt, I opted for a patriotic string design. The idea was to donate a quilt that Cynthia can use for her charity, Hands2Help. I tried to use scraps but not make the quilt too busy. I used a light blue central block fabric to get a secondary cross design. Of course, I ran out of the first light blue fabric and had to order more. The new fabric wasn’t a perfect match, but OK, who can really tell? Still, next time it’s better to plan ahead!

I usually sew my string quilt blocks onto old bed sheets that I’ve cut up. However, the extra fabric does make the quilt heavier, and I wanted to avoid that this time. When I was all done and taking photographs with my son’s help, I found a big boo-boo! It’s amazing how one can get this far in a project, only to realize the flub at the photographing stage!!! Back to the drawing board I had to go and flip that top X into an O.

The above is the top with the mistake. You probably see it right away. Silly me didn’t see it until the quilt was unfurled by my son.

Here is s sighting of a little Frida Kahlo scrap in a block. You can see an “I Love Lucy” scrap up above in the right hand corner as well.

Here you see some the mistaken area. Back to the drawing board.

I learned lots of things making this quilt top. First, be sure to have a sharp seam ripper available. Then, don’t drop and lose it into the fabric abyss. Second, use thin fabric scraps or old bed sheets rather than copy paper for the foundations papers. Third, you need lots of the fabric for your X design and check first if you will have enough. Fourth, this is ALMOST always a nice, scrappy project when you need something easy and uncomplicated.

I’m happy it’s done. That’s all I’ve got as I wrap this up to mail off for completion.

Please leave a message if you stop by. I would really love hearing from you.

Linking to: Needle and Thread Thursday , Put Your Foot Down, Finished Or Not Friday, Off The Wall Fridays, Patchwork and Quilts, Oh Scrap