Got the World on a String

Our quilting group does a weekend retreat the first week of November at a rustic log cabin lodge called Wa Wa Sum located on the banks of the AuSable River Main Stream in Grayling, Michigan.

Writing this post I decided to look up what exactly Wa Wa Sum means.  Through my search I found that it means "Plain View" in the Ojibwa language.  Evidently back in 1905 Chief David Shoppenagon, who was an AuSable River guide and woodsman, gave this hunting cabin its name.  In 1880 Chief David Shoppenagon built the first building on this property which is now the dining room. In 1897, Rubin Rabbit, an AuSable woodsman, built the second structure which is now the administration building. These first two buildings were constructed of red pine and tamarack logs and used as a fishing camp for a group of Toledo businessmen.  Other buildings were constructed over the years.   Back in the early 1900 the trees in this area were heavily harvested for its wood and you could see for miles making the name in plain view appropriate.  Today the area is heavily wooded again and the lodge is hidden up on the high banks of the river in the woods.  This lodge is now a Michigan State University research conference facility located six miles east of Grayling.

An old postcard picture of Wa Wa Sum lodge

In 2017 one of our group members came up with a retreat challenge - string quilts.  It ended up that none of us had attempted string quilts before so this was a great challenge.  Before our retreat weekend I cruised through the internet to get an idea exactly what a string quilt was and I became hooked.   One idea I saw was a block called "Snow on Cedars" that caught my eye.

It was exciting to work on a quilt that was going to bust through some of my stash fabrics.   Looking through my fabrics I realized that I had tons of green fabrics.  The light bulb went on - I would make a dent in my green stash and make a quilt with blocks similar to "Snow on Cedars".  I live in northern Michigan amongst thousand of trees including lots of pines and cedars.  There was no pattern for this quilt just a picture so I would wing it.  This is my rendition of "Snow on Cedars" that grew to be queen size.

Snow on Pines

Sewing these green strips together was a blast.   Not knowing the finished size of the quilt or the amount of blocks it would take I just cut and sewed every single piece of green fabric I had in my stash.  I was determined to use up all this green fabric.  Since there weren't enough days at the retreat weekend to sew all these random strips, over the next couple months I worked on my squares.  When I finally had all my blocks ready to assemble I still had a ton of green stringed sewn fabric left over - another quilt is on the drawing board.

As I finished this quilt and decided on a quilting design I named my quilt "Snow on Pines".  My quilting design looks like pine needles and not cedar.

After quilting I was burying my threads, and of course one of my cats decided he needed to get involved - quality control.  Who know where cats are until you start to sew something and then they magically appear ready to help.

That pile of unused green string blocks already are becoming a different quilt. This technique is a great way to use up your stash.   I'm loving the string quilt blocks and there will be more string quilts in the future - I have a lot more stash in other colors to break on through. Now finished with UFO #14.