A Girl Can Change Her Mind...Can't She?

Back in January Stephanie from Loft Creations issued a String Quilt Challenge. The idea was to use up scraps and fabrics you already have in your stash to make a string quilt (or bag, tablerunner, clothes, whatever!). My Flea Market Fancy stash has been calling me lately, so I decided I would use that for my strings. I have also been reading Freddy and Gwen's Collaborative books so I thought I would throw in some black and white too.

I thoroughly enjoyed making up the strings which came together quite quickly. Once done and nicely ironed, I layed them out in the design I thought I would use. Mmmm...it didn't do anything for me.

A few days later I tried a different layout. Nope...still not liking it.

Lately I have had a big thing for circles (I don't know why really, I just like them). So I found a plate big enough for my string block, drew a line around it and started cutting out circles.

I don't like wasting too much of this precious flea market fabric, so the 4 corners I had cut off while cutting out circles, I turned into little squares.

In the end this is the design I came up with. 9 large circles and 4 squares all bordered by a black and white spot with some half circles and 4 squares in the corner. I still don't really know if I like it that much, but I do like it better than my original design.

 Licorice Allsorts

To assemble the quilt I glued the circles and squares onto the quilt (definately not following the usual quilt rules for this one).

The pieces are then quilted onto the quilt using a spiral free motion pattern. The edges should fray a little giving a lovely 'old' look to it. I then simply stippled over the blue fabric.

For the backing I used up some of my Kona Coal fabric that I had originally purchased for the Jacobs Coat Quilt (but also changed my mind and ended up with Charcoal!). I had a few string squares left which again became circles.

Actually I think I like that back better than the front! You can really see the quilting standing out beautifully on the back.

I adore the Michael Miller Black and White Dandy Damask for the binding.

All in all I'm glad I changed my mind and experimented with this one. I've had fun, tried new things, and my husband really likes this quilt! I really like the back...did I mention that already?

Oh, and I found some lovely fabrics in my letterbox this week, but this post is too long already so I will show them off another time! xo