I am really really liking working with scraps.  I had a bunch of strings that were no more than 2.25 inches wide, which wasn’t wide enough to add to my “scrap vomit” quilt, so I put them all in one large grocery bag and waited.  I knew I wanted to make a string quilt of sorts, and debated between spider web quilt and string-X quilts.  Neither won, but I still plan on making one of each in the future.

I had an idea a while back to use money mailers as the foundation for paper piecing string blocks.   After I look through them and pull out the ones that I’ll use, I save the others.  They measure 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches.  And, with a little bit of inspiration here and here (different varieties of stair quilts), this is how this quilt began.

I am going to show with pictures how to assemble these blocks.  Feel free to scroll down to the end to see more pictures of the finished quilt .

Using glue stick, glue first strip to paper. Be sure the fabric covers across the entire width of paper. It should be at least 5.5 inches long.

Add a strip on top of the original, aligning the right sides together. Sew 1/4 inch from right edge of fabric, sewing through paper and fabric.

Press strips open at seams with iron. This image shows my original strip with additional strips on both sides.

Continue adding strips to either side. Use iron to press fabric open.

Here is the block once it is covered completely with fabric.

A view of the rough block from the back

Using a rotary blade and ruler, cut along the edge of paper to remove excess fabric.

Remove excess fabric from all sides.

Completed block. Using this block, you can add to it to make a variety of different quilt designs.

I added a 3.5 inch by 8.5 inch white strip of fabric to the block. Make sure to sew with fabric down instead of paper down, or the feed dogs will slip under the fabric.

Here is the final block.

Using 99 of these blocks, I made this staircase pattern with 11 rows of 9 blocks.  Here was my layout.

I used a typical free motion meandering to quilt it all together.  Here are some close ups.

I used a fun house fabric I found from Ikea for the backing.  I’ll be honest, every time I see this fabric, I want to grab some markers and color in those houses.

I have donated this quilt to our local PTA to be auctioned.  It measures 68 inches by 84 inches (71 x 87 before washing).

So that is it!  Thanks for coming!