Friday, March 02, 2007

More Heartstrings Designs

They were talking about the busy-ness of the heartstrings blocks over on the Heartstrings Yahoo group pages, and someone mentioned that you could take a completed heartstrings block, match it to a square of plain fabric, stitch it down the middle, and make two blocks - like a half square triangle.

Then they were wondering what kinds of designs you could make with half of a heartstrings block. I couldn't resist. Off to EQ! First I tried a simple little star:


Then rotated the hsts and changed all the blocks to hsts, and changed the color of the triangles to springy green:


You could actually do any block that has half square triangles and/or whole squares for this. The depression block layout looks great too!

Because you lose some of the size when you cut your heartstrings block in half diagonally and re-sew it, it'd make sense to trim your NEW blocks to 8½ inches. If you're mixing whole heartstrings blocks with them, of course they'd have to be trimmed to the same size. This would be a good thing to do with blocks that somehow became too small or got lopsided. Then I added some blocks to my layout and played with making this one in pink:


But all of those blue whole heartstrings blocks I've used around the edges would have to be trimmed, you'd be wasting a lot, trimming an inch off them, unless you made some smaller ones on purpose. Better not use many whole blocks, I thought. Then I came up with these designs that don't use as many whole heartstrings blocks, just 4 in the center. First one with a denim colored half block:


Then my favorite, some turquoise:


And finally, one in navy blue:


Which layout should I try first?

19 comments:

Unknown said...

I love the navy blue - the perfect foil for all that heartstring business

Fiona said...

Thanks for sharing these ideas - I like the springy green triangles.

YankeeQuilter said...

I liek the simple one with the pink background squares. Thanks for sharing these great ideas. Maybe I will pull out the remaining half-finished blocks and put them together! Great inspiration...

Evelyn aka Starfishy said...

What fun! I think I would sort all the blocks by value... and use a darker fabric for the lighter blocks and a lighter fabric for the darker blocks... if it works out that way! So many of those blocks have many different values! I do like the pink one with that border... so might be worth making the smaller blocks just for the border... Then again - I am sure they all will look lovely once pieced together...

Cheers!

Evelyn

Joyce said...

I love them all, but I wolud probably start with the navy blue one. Not sure if it is the pattren or the way the navy sets off the colors of the string blocks.

Gail said...

I like the first one best, but a couple others come in a tied for a close second.

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh I like those layouts! Did you ever see the string HSTs quilts I did last year? I did exactly this with a bunch of string blocks and they turned out beautiful. But you have some layouts I didn't think of!

tami said...

I really like the secondary pattern created in the last one with the navy blue. I think you should try that first.

Silverthimble said...

I love the last one--the navy one!

quiltpixie said...

string blocks are all the thing now aren't they! Hey, as if I didn't have enough stash cut I can even buy jemrolls now!

floribunda said...

I seem to be in with most everyone else -- they're all sweet, but I like the way the navy blue makes the strings "pop"! (or how about dark red?)

Tracey in CT said...

Wow..so many great ideas. I think I like the bottom one with the navy blue the best.

Mary Johnson said...

I like the last one the best too - the dark blue sets off the blocks well.

You should post a message over at HeartStrings and include a link so everyone can come over and take a look at the new designs.

Lily Mulholland said...

Well you certainly had fun playing! I like the first one - the simple star - and the last one - the navy blue star. Guess I like stars!!

Tazzie said...

Wow, I love all the designs you've come up with. I think my fave would have to be the one with the navy blue, it almost looks lone star-ish!
*hugs*
Tazzie
:-)

Carol said...

What grat designs...I love the navy blue one. Really makes that star POP!

Helen in the UK said...

Great designs! My favourites are the Depression block and the last one with the navy. Can't wait to see which one you pick to make first :)

Elaine Adair said...

Regarding string blocks, this AM on The Painted House (design and redo) they showed the a floor which naturally, was designed just like our string blocks, with half plain and theother half strips/string looking, making that nice design where the corners met.

Thanks for all the photos and ideas.

Rose Marie said...

I love them all! I'm going to play now with my EQ6 and see what I can come up with.

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