What Happens to Your Stray Blocks?

We're planning programs for the upcoming year in our guild, and decided to repeat a fun one that we did several years back. We called it the "Orphan Block Project". I'm sure many of you have those stray blocks tucked away in your sewing room. Maybe you made one or two practice blocks before starting a quilt, or possibly you have a few extra blocks left from a completed one. What to do with those blocks? They're too pretty to toss, so we hang on to them and clean around them from time to time. Well for our project, we pooled our blocks at one meeting. Everyone who brought a block "shopped" first to choose someone else's orphans. Then we opened the shopping to the entire membership. We had so many offerings that quilters were able to choose three or four blocks or sets of blocks. The next challenge was to turn the blocks into a completed quilt in time for the "Birthday Party", complete with a cake and root beer floats. Members had several months to complete their projects, and there were some beautiful results. That's the quilt I made above. I used the design book "Beyond the Block" by Linda K. Johnson and Jane K. Wells to come up with this lively quilt. Can you guess which block was the "adopted" one? It's the big red/green star in the center. It was great fun coordinating the other fabrics, blocks, and pieced units to go with it.

This red and green hand-appliqued block became the basis for a beautifully hand-quilted wall hanging. Now isn't that better than having this intricate block languish in a plastic bag or beneath a pile of UFOs?

Somebody's Star blocks combined with somebody else's Bow Ties to make this sweet lap quilt.

The bird looks at home in his lively surroundings!

Just look at this stunner! The Color Wheel block provided plenty of inspiration.

Someone else parted with a whole set of Bear Paw blocks. The quiltmaker created quite a treasure!

I can hardly wait to see what everyone comes up with this time. I'm gathering my orphan blocks. I've got several of my own, plus these two left from the last adoption. I didn't do anything with them, so I may bring them back for round two. The block above is fused applique and just needs the edge stitching added. The one below is meticulously hand appliqued. Somehow, other people's blocks just gave us all that added spark of inspiration needed to move these block to completion. Several of the projects became donation quilts, for which there is always a need.

Whirligig Quilt...

This is another quilt I've been inching along toward completion. Now the binding is on, and it is done. The pattern makes use of width-of-fabric strips joined in pairs. They're 2 1/2" strips, so it's a good quilt for using a Jelly Roll or similar pre-cut fabric collections.

As you look at the quilt, you'll notice that the border blocks and the blocks in the inner rectangle are reverse images of each other (see side-by-side blocks in photo below). Using the strip-piecing method in the pattern results in both blocks being sewn at the same time. So it really feels like a "quick quilt." You can find the pattern in quilt shops, or on the Quilt-in-a-Day website.

Claudia from Quiltworks of Orange Springs quilted this project. I like the graceful, swirling leafy motif she used on it. You can see it more clearly in the photo below where I've placed blocks on the back side of the quilt to photograph them. It's a soft and feminine quilt. I'm not sure where this quilt will reside. It may become a charitable donation quilt, but I'm still thinking on it.

Below are some more of the leftovers. There are lots of 4-Patch units from trimming the strip sets. Of course I can hardly bear to throw anything away, so these will lurk in the closet until I dream up a project that will make use of them. They won't be lonely in the closet though. There are more leftovers in there to keep them company. The ones at right, below, are from a Drunkard's Path quilt top that is waiting for a border. What do you do with your leftovers?