Scrappy Solids String Quilt

 Solids Scrappy String Quilt by quiltytherapy #stringquilt #solidsquilt #scrapquilt #babyquilt
Last winter I had the wonderful idea to make 100 8 inch string blocks with my solid scraps.  Totally feasible and a great way to use up my cloth grocery bag bursting at the seams of scraps.  In reality I made 42 and am happy with that.  That large bag stuffed with solid scraps.  Still overflowing, but slightly more manageable.
That bag of scraps has so many colors and shades hiding in it.  By block 35 I was getting worried the blocks started to look too much alike.  I was gravitating towards certain colors.  This is supposed to be random and scrappy.  42 was the right number to stop at and make a baby quilt to have on hand.
With a string quilt, turn your stitch length way down.  No, a little lower.  When you rip the paper off it can loosen stitches and even pull some.  UGH, it did happen with this quilt.  My hope after washing and drying the quilt is that everything will shrink a bit and those stitches will tighten.
For quilting, I wanted something a bit dense to help adjust for some errors.  Straight lines criss cross over the quilt gives texture and hides most flaws in the crinkles.  At the retreat I machine bound this quilt but wasn’t happy with the overall look.  Last week I ripped out the stitches and hand sewed the binding to the back.  Now I’m much more pleased with the finished quilt.
I tend to wash quilts by themselves to help avoid colors running onto other items.  With this quilt I tossed it in with some towels and fleece blankets.  I really wanted this to tumble in the dryer.  Look at that crinkle?
The backing was pulled from my box of destash fabrics.  There was just enough to make the back between the two.  This older WIP used up scraps and some fabrics on the back I was ready to part with.
After trimming the quilt of all the little strings, I like this quilt more.  During the retreat there were some not so nice words while quilting.  What do you think?

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