String Hope

A bit more than two years ago, my friend Bonnie came to visit. Both of us made the letters and she made all the string blocks for her incredible quilt Love on a Shoestring Budget. (You can see it in progress here.) I have wanted a quilt like it ever since. So this is my hopeful version:

This pic should enlarge when you click on it. It amazes me how much better these blocks look in photos than in person. It's so jumbly when I just look at it.

I've been sticking to Bonnie's philosophy of fabric aka the Garbage Can Method. Her quilts are so joyous and unrestrained, probably because she doesn't over think it. So long as the fabric has a decent threadcount and you can't poke your finger through it, it goes into the quilt. That means mixing together repros, batiks, holiday, novelties, etc all together. Worry about value and contrast. And for me, really worry about using light-colored fabrics - far too many of my quilts are dark.

This is my first time fishing fabric out of the Garbage Can. Well, and sticking to it. (I made a few stringed diamonds once and hated them - but they look great in Bonnie's String Lone Star). I've always always always thought that neutrals and offwhites and beiges etc would change the look of my quilt. But these quilt blocks are bright even with the muted yucky fabrics.

Here's a HOPE with repros batiks and brights:

I included the ugly awful Florida Gators fabric that my new friend Jeri gave me. It's hideous and I don't even know what sport the team plays, but I had to throw it in. It reminds me of that nasty Steelers fabric that keeps working itself into Bonnie's scrap quilts.

Little bits of Halloween pop out:

I'll think of Siobhan when I see her duckling and goldfish conversation print:

Blocks in progress:

This is Pokey's quilt. It's all about the hope I cling to for her to have a long, happy, reasonably healthy life.

My sweet baby

I'm enjoying making blocks. There's fabric in here from friends new and old and "imaginary" (as my husband calls all my blogging friends whom I've never met in person). There are definitely bits from Cher, Sharon and Kathie B, amongst others.

So there's lots of fabric from other people and lots that aren't in "my" colors and yet the final product really does look like me. I'm amazed.

But now I have to decide if I've made enough blocks. I could make a wallhanging this size. Or I could keep making blocks and go for a lap quilt. Decisions, decisions.

In non-quilt news, I'm watching the Tour de France. I wasn't going to but Lance Armstrong is riding and it just made me nuts not to see it. And now he's tied for first place - woohoo! So weird to be rooting for the Kazakh team instead of U.S. and George Hincapie isn't riding with Lance. Eek.