Little Blue Lake Quilt

Do you ever wonder how many quilts you can sew from your stash? I ponder this question a lot. My stash isn't huge but it was beginning to feel out of control. It was time to sew a scrappy quilt and use the fabrics at the bottom of my bins - you know the ones that are destined to be forgotten forever.

My fabric bins are sorted by colour and my original plan was to grab the blue bin and sew something but on a family drive inspiration struck! Instead I grabbed the blue, teal and aqua bins and sewed the quilt I'm calling my Little Blue Lake Quilt:

My very first scrappy string quilt! And why haven't I tried one of these before?  OMG this was one of the most enjoyable quilts I've ever sewn, and I love every square inch of it. 

These fabrics may never have seen the light of day but now they are all together in a new quilt for our summer picnics.

I'm going to share all the quilt information etc. including the template I used, but first let me tell you more about my inspiration:

Little Blue Lake is located in northeast Tasmania about 2 hours from our home. The vivid colour of this lake is the result of mining that took place in this area. The high mineral content, mainly tin, gives this lake its distinctive blue colour.

It's a peaceful, picturesque spot to visit and while it's the perfect picnic location, it's not suitable for swimming as the water is toxic due to the heavy metals. It's also a great place for gem hunters as smokey quartz, topaz and amethyst are found abundantly.

I wanted to recreate this same serenity your feel at the lake, in my new quilt.

My brain really struggles with scrappy. I'm more of a sew one block at a time kinda gal who deliberately places fabrics and blocks in a scrappy order. I'll buy new fabrics instead of using fabrics that I've fallen out of love with, to control the end result.

I also struggle with the thought of random sized strips, so I decided for this quilt I needed to make a compromise. I drafted a template for the blocks to keep the strings equal in width, but I just let go and sewed fabrics together randomly...yes, totally random!

Some of the fabrics appear once or twice throughout the quilt and others can be found more regularly, depending on the cut I had in my stash. These fabrics now have a new forever home; some were from old projects, some were those "what was I thinking" fabrics but together they look amazing!

I decided to sew my blocks on paper because I thought muslin might add extra bulk to the lightweight summer quilt I wanted to make. I settled on 7" blocks (finished) set in a 10 x 10 grid (100 blocks) making my quilt finish at around 70" square; the perfect size picnic quilt for us.

Laying out the blocks was traumatic ;) No matter how many times I moved them around I still had the same fabrics laying close together. After hours of reshuffling and trying to position them evenly throughout the quilt, I stopped and just sewed them all together. In the end it turned out OK.

Because there was a lot of movement in the strips, I did leave the paper on the blocks until they were all sewn into the quilt top. Removing them was time consuming but worth the extra effort.

I quilted my Little Blue Lake Quilt with some serpentine stitching spaced at 1/2" intervals. It perfectly replicates the ripples you see on the lake when there's a gentle breeze, and once it's washed it's going to crinkle up beautifully.

I always use a silky embroidery thread for quilting and although it's hard to see in photos, it reflects the light and glistens against the fabrics like the light twinkling on the surface of the lake.

The backing and binding fabric also came from my stash, so technically this quilt was a freebie :) I love the backing fabric, it's absolutely perfect for this quilt and super pretty as well. It is light but hopefully it won't stain as we drag it around over summer.

I did choose a darker binding fabric and I think it creates the perfect frame for all of those gorgeous colours.

If you're looking for something scrappy and you haven't tried a string quilt before then this might be perfect pattern for you. Grab your fabric bins and sew!

I've made up a file which includes the 7" template I used and also a template with the centre white strip only, in case you prefer sewing random sized strings.

To download the free template file, simply click the link:

If you're looking for a tutorial on string quilts then I suggest you start at Bonnie's blog HERE.

I love love love our new picnic quilt. I enjoyed every step of the process and there's always a sense of satisfaction when you use the last of a fabric and see it shine in a new quilt. 

I'm so glad I sewed with creative freedom and allowed the fabrics to play together by themselves. Maybe I can do scrappy after all :)

Inspiration can strike anywhere and at any time, and my Little Blue Lake Quilt will always be a special reminder of that family road trip. Summer picnics just got a whole lot prettier :)

Happy quilting :)