Like scrap quilts, string quilts are addictive to me. They are whimsical, colorful, and free of matchy matchy rules! Do you have a bin of over flowing small strips and strings? Here’s a link to a pattern that shows you how to make a gorgeous quilt from strips and strings!
As I square up backings, trim up yardage when rotary cutting, and anything less than 1.5″ I throw into a bin.As I square up backings, trim up yardage when rotary cutting, and anything else that is less than 1.5 inches I throw into a bin.
…and that’s the end of my fabric food chain! The road to being “useable” ends here.
The beauty of strings lies in their humbleness and how much fun and rewarding it can be to work with them!
Alternatively, you can use scraps of varying widths from 1 inch to about 2 inches wide if you don’t have a collection of strips and strings. Also, it would be great if the strips weren’t all straight…angle angle some of them a bit. I love the way it adds interest to the quilt!
For this project, you will need fabric foundation squares as well as the strips and strings:
Foundation squares of any size can be used. It’s a great idea to use 11-inch squares as your base. This quilt’s white diamond ‘sashing’ is actually a strip of white that is left uncovered down the diagonal of the square! Foundation squares can be any color you like. If you’re working with all brights, you might choose black, or if you’re working with all blues, you might choose red. Consider your fabric foundation squares to be your accent colors. All the busy scrappy strips get a break from each other with it!
Here is another example of a very, very stringy quilt that was done! For this one, about 1000 selvedges were used, and the end result is absolutely gorgeous!

I am inspired by antique and vintage string quilts! The majority of these quilts are worn and used up, but there are still a few great ones around.
Image and Pattern Source: quiltville.blogspotcom