Design Wall Monday - Santa Fe String Star

The diamonds aren't cut to their exact size yet, just trimmed enough to give me an idea what they might look like when they're done. Honestly, I'm not sure if I have the nerve for this quilt or not. I haven't worked with diamonds before, and haven't done set in seams, or a big star like this one.... and I've got 200 diamonds to piece...I really feel more comfortable with quilts where you can try out a test block or two before jumping in.



As I sort through strings I'm pulling out anything that looks pink enough for the cotton candy quilt, and anything that's wider than 1 1/2" for the Lego quilt...and using the little strips for diamonds. And since I was finding so many long strings, I decided to start some 7 1/2" blocks for Daylilies... conveniently forgetting that that quilt has set in seams and hand applique... looks like I'll be developing some new skills!

My 1 1/2" strips die that actually cuts 1 1/2" strips came this week (long story which I'll tell you later this week) and it's making cutting the pieces for the Lego quilt so much easier. I just iron anything that's wide enough and stack them so the edges extend past the blades and run it through the cutter when I've got enough layers. I'm loving this!



To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

It's here!

My copy of String Fling came in yesterday's mail. The timing couldn't be much better -- I just finished a big project and now I've got a little time to drool over the book and sort through my own collection of strings.



I think I want to make every quilt in the book. When Bonnie showed them all in her preview post a few weeks ago, I thought I wanted to make most of them. Now, I can almost picture myself working through my entire stash of strings and scraps and crumbs. This is definitely the book to do it with.

The "Directions at a Glance" pages are great. They show how many units you need and give the measurements. More detailed instructions are elsewhere in the pattern, and I'm sure I'll still need to read those, but having everything on one page will make it easier to keep track of what I'm trying to accomplish. (Looks like the Directions at a Glance made their debut in Scraps and Shirttails II, but I don't have that one yet, so I missed them.)

Talkin Turkey was my first favorite, but now that I've got the book in my hands I'm seriously in love with Zuckerwatte, the pink cotton candy quilt. Do I have enough pink scraps left to make that one? I'm almost positive I don't have enough red for Talkin Turkey, so I'm thinking of trying it in brown. Brown, I've got. For the moment.

I can figure out what colors I've got while I'm cutting strings into 1 1/2" strips for my Lego quilt. And the bits that are too small for that, or not the colors I'm looking for, can go into a Santa Fe String Star. At least that's the plan for right now.