Quite a long time ago (2009!), I had a chance to go to Denyse Schmidts annual studio sale. It was such fun to see her studio space, to admire those beautiful and inspiring quilts, and a bonus to be able to take home a couple scrap bags.

I bought scrap bags then trying to get a bit more flea market fancy (I was obsessed at the time!), but one bag also included the scraps above – maybe from Denyse’s stash? I’m not sure, but for some reason I’ve held onto these scraps for all these years. On their own, they’re not really my style, but I always thought I might include a piece or two in some quilt. The other day while looking for a ladder in the garage I came across the bag of scraps (don’t worry – I don’t store fabric in the garage normally!). I decided it was time to put them to use and challenged myself to make something I like out of fabrics I didn’t necessarily love.

I went back to an old favorite – the string quilt. I wrote a tutorial on how to construct these blocks many years ago (find it here!), and over the years I’ve made quite a lot of string quilts. I decided to pull from my bag of neutral solids for this one, so there’s an assortment of whites, creams, and tans, in a variety of base cloths including some linens and a few unknowns! In addition to the DS scraps, I added in a few other scraps with a similar feel. I cut all the scraps to 1.5″ wide and pieced them into 5.5″ squares.

I made as many blocks as I could with the fabrics I had and it’s ended up at about 30″ x 40″. I’m pleased to say that I’m very happy with how it’s turned out. I have plans for it to become a wall hanging for above our couch. Next step is building a frame!

P.S. Denyse’s studio sale happens to be this weekend, so if you’re in the area, I highly recommend it! (If only I didn’t have three kids who dislike car trips!)