Finished String Quilt

I finally finished my strings quilt!  I really wanted a dark pink binding but with all of my fabric still packed, I was limited to what I could find among the fabric that was in plastic tubs.
Pippi kept an eye on me while I quilted, she was not happy because I kept having to move her off the quilt.

I love all of the different fabrics in this quilt.  Most of the strings came from a friend at retreat, thank you Mary Lou!
I love the sewing machine fabric in this block!

And the happy faces in this one!  With this quilt, my husband dared me to use what ever piece of fabric I puled out of the basket.  He said I was too much of a control freak to do it, with the exception of looking at the size of the strings, I did it!  I have blues, browns, blacks, pinks, reds, Christmas, spring, baby etc. all combined together!

The pinks and blues make me think of Tabitha(blues) and Valerie(pinks) because they are leftovers from their quilts. I also have leftovers from my niece's, nephew's and mom's quilts! I decided to do a free motion scallops on the quilt and really loved how it turned out!

It showed up great on the back with the minky blanket I used!  I decided not to use batting, just because I still have two more tops that need quilting and I don't know when I will be able to get more batting, it is at least a 30 minute drive to the closest Wal-Mart or quilt shop and 1 1/2 hours to the closest Joann's or Hobby Lobby.

I made lots of mistakes, I made this quilt after seeing someone else make one, but did not really follow any directions.  First off, I should have trimmed my strings before sewing them on, the strings that were not trimmed had places I had to resew.  For example the blue girly stuff fabric.  There were a few places like that.  I think I will take some pink embroidery floss and make x's over those spots (like a crazy quilt) to hide those spots.

Another mistake I made, was not knowing the muslin would stretch.  I just trimmed off each edge following the line of muslin without measuring which made all of the blocks different sizes.  I 'm thinking next time I will pick a square ruler one inch smaller then the cut muslin and cut to that size?

Custard

I was also careless with my binding because I was rushing and had to go back and fix several spots today.

But the cats love it and so do I!  This is only the second quilt I've made for myself!  (both throws!)

Pippi

I sewed the strings with my red eye/redhead 66 hand crank sewing machine and quilted it on my Singer 16 treadle!

Have you ever made a string quilt or any quilt with complete abandon?

Missy