Zippidy Do Da… A scrappy string-pieced quilt

String-Pieced Pot Holder – straight

High-Ho, high-ho; it’s off to Oregon I go.

La la la la la la la la and all that!

One of the classes that I am teaching at the Quilter’s Affair up at Sisters, Oregon, this year is called Zippidy Do Da.

Zippidy Do Da Quilt, by Alethea Ballard; 2012

The quilt is made up of twelve scrappy, string-pieced, ten-inch blocks.

Originally, we wanted to offer a relaxed-style quilting class to young students and kids at the Quilter’s Affair, so we invited children ages 8-12 in the morning and thirteen to adult (I was thinking like 22 years old) in the afternoon. As it turns out, some (most) of our afternoon “kids” are much older than 22 and we think that is JUST FINE! It’s going to be a fun class and I’m excited to be teaching it.

String-Pieced Pot Holder – diagonal

We made the cutest, string-pieced pot holders last week in my drop-in kids class at Wooden Gate Quilts, in Danville.

String piecing – diagonal setting on 8″ x 10″ rectangle

I’ve spent the morning creating samples and I wanted to share my sewing and some other examples of string-pieced quilts!

Back side of string-pieced rectangle block

String piecing is no more than sewing bits of fabric together, usually onto a foundation like a piece of muslin or paper, trimming the edges, and then sewing the scrappy blocks together.

Four String-pieced diagonal 8″ x 10″ rectangle: in a row

The foundation can be a variety of shapes. With these rectangles there are many ways the blocks can be sewn together.

Four String-pieced diagonal 8″ x 10″ rectangle

Four String-pieced diagonal 8″ x 10″ rectangle – alternate placement

The strips and foundations can be any size you want.

String-Pieced blocks: straight-sewn squares

String-Pieced blocks: diagonally-sewn squares

You can also sew same-size pieces in either straight or diagonal settings.

String-Pieced blocks in progress

Last summer my fabulous student Mia made a wonderful quilt using this technique.

Zippidy Do Da Quilt, by Mia; 2012

Mia quickly saw that the blocks can create a pattern if you are deliberate with the fabric placement, so she make a drawing of the quilt and wrote in which fabrics she needed in each section to create the diagonal squares. It came out great, and I’ll be able to bring it with me to Oregon to inspire the students!

I’ve created a little collection of other great String-pieced quilts on Pintrest – Please go over and check them out! I’ve included star and spiderweb settings as well. Cool!

Now I’m going to have to make a larger one of my own, don’t you think?

I MIGHT have a few (thousand) scraps to get started with!