Scrappy Irish Chain

What's not to love about scrappy quilts plus an Irish Chain pattern? This one was a free pattern online.

And I had plenty of squares already cut - so I chose the container with 1.5" squares already cut. Put together totally random except the raspberry pink squares.

Then I looked for a fabric in my stash that had enough yardage for borders, binding and the squares that bordered the white/cream spaces. I wasn't 100% sure I had what I needed, but I could always adjust the border to a narrower width and do the binding with something else if needed.

And the finished quilt. Lap size with a pink Minky backing.

Gotta love those white spaces to show off the quilting on the front side. (Quilted by Marie of Blueberry Hill Quilts)

And hanging outside in the wild.

Beautiful raspberry pink borders.

And in all it's gorgeousness on the fence! (Just love this spot for photos!)

--Ann

Baby Bear Star Blocks

I had a panel with multiple teddy bear picnic blocks and I found some bright prints to make stars around the pieces I cut from that panel.

There wasn't enough of anything in my stash for borders, so I found this bright blue print at the local quilting shop and added borders. 

And a Fireside backing for soft cuddle factor. Sent it off to be quilted by my friend Marie at Blueberry Hill Quilts.

On a sunny day, took the quilt outside for a little photoshoot and got photo bombed by the horse behind the fence.

--Ann

String Quilt

I've been watching the string quilt hashtag over on Instagram and admiring all the lovely work of other quilters while collecting strips of my own for my version.

I collected my used dryer Bounce sheets to use for my foundation. A foundation is not needed, but it helps me with the length of my strips and to keep the rough block close to finished size. 

I used a 1" wide strip of white diagonally from corner to corner on the foundation and then added random strips to either side until the foundation was covered. 

Then each block was cut to a consistent size. I used green painter's tape to mark the size on the top of my 12.5" square ruler and lined up the white strip with the corners on those measurement lines. Think about trimming a half square triangle - the same principles apply here.

Because the dryer sheets are not square, putting these together makes a nice rectangular quilt top. I added a narrow white border (1.5" wide) and then a wider navy blue border to finish. For multi color quilts like this out of scraps, navy blue or forest green are good border choices to pull it all together. 

And the final quilt is an amazing blast of color! The backing also came from my stash and no fabrics were purchased to finish this quilt.

Do you like string quilts or scrappy quilts? What's your favorite pattern to use scraps?

--Ann