Thank you all for your input on the layout for my String Pieced blocks.  It was so interesting to read all of your comments.  We’re a diverse group!  I’ve decided to go with the Offset Diamonds.

There were 116 comments.  I used a Random Number Generator.  The winning number was…………

Susan will be getting a package with 100 “strings” to start her on her own String Pieced Quilt!

Thank you all for your comments.

In June I posted a tutorial for String Piecing for A Quilt Block A Day.

Finally, I’ve finished 100 blocks.  Now I just have to decide how to put them together!

My first thought was to set them in a Chevron pattern.

It didn’t look as good on the design wall as it did in my mind, so I went more traditional, with X’s and O’s.

Hmmm……I’m liking that, but I just had to try one more setting.  I call this Exploding Diamonds.

Oh, wait!  Just one more…….  How about if I do Offset Diamonds!?!

Oh, too many decisions.  What do you think?  Leave me a comment and let me know your favorite setting.  I’ll enter your name in a drawing to be held November 28.  The winner will win 100 fabric strips to get you started on your own string pieced quilt!

My friend, Melinda, was just over in Walla Walla and went to the quilt show at the museum there.  Today she shared slides from the show, and I just had to post them.

This Whig Rose was definitely the star of the show.  Amazingly, they have the provenance of the quilt.  It was made in 1854 by Mary K. Clark.

The quilting is incredible.  There are over 350,000 stitches in it!

This Enhanced Four Patch is a sweet quilt.  It’s not a design you see very often.  From the 1930′s.

This is a really fine example of a Victorian era Crazy Quilt.  It has an amazing variety of stitches!

Here’s a Churn Dash.  I see the label also refers to this pattern as Sherman’s March To The Sea.  I hadn’t heard that reference before, but I love it!  Quilt names say a lot about the what was happening in people’s lives.

Doves at the Window is a very difficult pattern to piece.  Do you see the four doves in each block?  Isn’t it interesting that quilters were doing “abstract” designs over 150 years ago?

I’m not at all familiar with this pattern, called Wisconsin Star.  It’s quite interesting the way it is pieced.

Here’s a very traditional Dresden Plate.  Melinda thinks it may be from a Ruby McKim pattern entitled Friendship Ring–and I agree.  It has 20 petals in the plates and the ice cream cone border.

The Double Wedding Ring pattern is probably one of the most recognizable quilt patterns—even among non-quilters.  The quilting on this one is lovely.

Now this is incredible!  Small silk bands were wrapped around cigars to identify the manufacturer.  Never ones to waste bits of fabric (and undoubtedly attracted by their bright colors), women began to collect and save cigar silks.  They were most often yellow.  The maker of this jacket certainly had a huge collection of silks, and the purple ones are the perfect choice for the collar and cuffs.

Her chevron design is perfectly pieced.  And once the piecing was done, she did a feather stitch—by hand, of course—along the edge of each band!

This cigar silk quilt was found in the same trunk as the jacket.

Again, beautifully sewn and feather stitched.

And don’t you love the “fringed” border?

An Eight Pointed Star.  The label refers to “Japanese” quilting.  Perhaps it’s reminiscent of Sashiko.

This wool quilt was probably made from suiting samples from a tailor’s sample book.  My husband’s grandfather and great-grandfather were both tailors and we have some quilts similar to this.

This is a very old Courthouse Steps quilt.

I suspect it’s foundation pieced.

Even utilitarian quilts are pleasing to the eye.

This last pattern is called Hearts and Gizzards!

Thank you, Melinda, for sharing with us!

While Bob and I no longer own a cranberry farm, he does work each harvest season for another grower.  I, however, just show up on a sunny day with my camera!