String Block tutorial

I've been seeing loads of pretty String quilts on Pinterest lately, plus I've long loved the fabulous block from the Missouri Quilt Company video here. Now I finally found the project for both of them! The quilt's in progress, but thought I'd share the process of the first block now that it's done. 

These guys are destined to be the grass in a quilt so I've done a variety greens, with a mix of shades & prints and a mix of medium, dark and light tones. 

All strips were cut to 1" width, and trimmed to about 7" long. For my 48 blocks, I needed 336 pieces. This amounts to 14 prints, and four 1" strips of each, the full width of the fabric from selvedge to selvedge. 

Materials for 48 @ 4-1/4" blocks
14 green prints, each 4" 
OR - various scraps to get to the same amount of fabric, 336 pieces @ 1" x 7".

You will also need: 
sewing machine
rotary cutter
mat 
6-1/2" square quilting ruler (optional but super helpful)
longer ruler such as 12" or 24"

First, cut all your pieces. I like mine to be sorted, and since I used a mix of full strips and scraps, I also made a note of how many I had of each fabric. This helped me to lay out my strip groups, and not end up with too many of the same strips at the end. 

Next, sew 14 strips together in a pleasing order. Use a 1/4" seam, and check after your first block that the whole is between 6-1/2" wide 6-3/4" wide. If it's not, adjust your seam allowance accordingly. 

Because you have so many seams, any little adjustment will make a huge difference to the end result, so make only tiny changes!

Make at least two of these. For 48 blocks, make 24. 

Now, trim your blocks. 

Lay the 6-1/2" square ruler on your pieced block. Trim the block to the size of the ruler - 
6-1/2" x 6-1/2".

Next, sew two blocks together. 

Lay the string blocks right-sides together, one with strips laying horizontally and one with strips vertically.  

Now, stitch around all four sides of the blocks with a 1/4" seam allowance from the edges. 

TIP: In order not to flip your many seams as you sew, you can sew two sides at a time, then flip the blocks over and sew from the other side. 

Looking at the block at right, you'd sew the right side plus either the top or bottom side - whichever has the seams towards you when it's in the sewing machine. 

Then flip the block over and repeat, so that the seam allowances are always pressed away from the machine & are less likely to flip as you sew. 

Now, cut the square to get four blocks. Cut diagonally from corner to corner two times, as shown. 

Open up the blocks and check the corner which has the horizontal strip. 

It may have a funny bit of the next strip that you can trim off. 

The one at the top has a simple little bit dangling off, it's easy to see how to trim it - just snip off the extra bit. 

For the others, you may want to use a ruler to check...

Turn the block over and use a ruler to see if there is enough seam allowance in the 2nd strip to allow you to remove the small end bit. 

As long as the 1/4" lines show that you have a decent amount of fabric for a seam allowance inside the end of the 2nd strip, go ahead and unpick that end triangle.

To finish up, simply press the final seam towards the single, horizontal strip (no seams are pressed). If the last seam on that side is in the way, simply trim a little bit of it away.  

Voila, your 4-1/4" string blocks are done!