At our retreat 2 weeks ago (has it already been that long!), we all started working on our Garbage Quilts.
My grandmother has been making these quilts for years and she is the one who came up with that name. They are also known as God's Eye quilts, and I have seen other bloggers call them strippies or string quilts.
You start with a foundation piece, ours are 8.5"x8.5". Draw a line 3/4" on either side of the center diagonal line of your foundation piece. Start sewing strips on either side of the diagonal center strip using your drawn lines as your guide. Your strips should vary in width from 1.5" to 3". The wider strips are really good for the corners.
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| These are Betty's blocks. She used a turquoise for her foundation piece. |
We exchanged strips for this quilt. We each filled 6 large ziploc bags with different sized strips from our scrap bins. We then each gave a bag to the other members of the group and ended up with strips from everyone's scrap bin! It is much more fun to sew with everyone's fabric!
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| These are Pat's blocks. She used an old sheet for her foundation and added a strip of black as the center strip of every block. |
Some of the others were very organized with their strips. Mine are all mixed up in a bag. Whatever works!!
My mom and I decided to do ours using the quilt-as-you-go method.
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| This is my first row! |
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| close-up of some of my blocks |
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| This is the back of my first row. I still had to hand-stitch the sashing down. |
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| close-up of the back of my first row. |
This is my grandmother's latest Garbage Quilt. This is a picture of just the top but my mom has since quilted it and it is now on her bed. She used muslin as her foundation and used the traditional setting for a God's Eye quilt.
We are all having fun working on our quilts. They will all look different because we are using different foundations and center strips, we are also making them different sizes. My mom and I are also doing different settings because we have sashing in ours.
I will definitely be posting pictures as we continue to work on them and get them finished!
love it, love it, love it... I just love string quilts and love that your grandmother is still teaching you her love of quilting. Love how hers turned out and your mother told me about you and her doing quilt as you go. Anxious to see how you like it once you start putting the rows together as we have done this for charity quilts and I did not like it very much...
ReplyDeleteVery cool! That's another quilt I need to try! Such scrappy goodness!
ReplyDeleteI've always heard them called string quilts, and this one is way too pretty to be a garbage quilt -- although the name kind of makes me smile!
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