One of my UFO (UnFinished Object) goals for the year is to do something with some of my orphan blocks. (Those are miscellaneous blocks left from various projects; you can read about them here). I’ve already turned a bunch of them into quilts, but I hauled them out again last month to give it another shot.
These star blocks are orphans left over from several projects, so they are different sizes
These are left from various projects, but I just love star blocks so they probably won’t be the last of the breed 🙂 And you can probably see that one of them even has a piece turned wrong, which I did NOT see until just now 😀
After fooling around with various options for them, I selected 5 and made this quilt:
Donation quilt made from orphan star blocks
It actually worked out just fine to simply add a partial border to the smallest one. And the purple fabric is left from yet another project, so win-win!
What do you do with your orphan blocks?
Zippy Quilts 
I like it! I did notice the one unit turned differently and figured it was purposeful asymmetry!
My orphan blocks come in two types — true orphans with no genetic relatives, or multiples that I thought I would use in a border, only to find they wouldn’t work. The multiples are pretty easy to use, of course. Use them in a different border, or make alternate blocks and set them in a block quilt. I have a very sweet baby quilt waiting for a baby. Its made from 32 puss-in-the-corner blocks I made for a border, plus 31 unpieced alternate blocks, all in a 7×9 layout. And a different set of borders I made for the same original quilt are going to border a different center block. (Yes, that original quilt was tough to make the right border for. Ultimately I decided it didn’t need that border, and it was done.)
The true orphans… I should go through those and decide their fates. A few things should just be pitched, but others might be usable if I make the effort.
I aspire to use some of my orphan blocks by cutting them into circles to applique onto plain backgrounds, but haven’t gotten there yet. Good luck with yours!
Well, I didn’t notice till you mentioned it and then I had to look hard to find it. Guess my eye corrects shapes just as it corrects misspellings as I read. 🙂
I “save” my orphans in the hope of getting other orphans that will go with them someday. Or sometimes I make them the center of a small doll or baby quilt and build around them from my stash.
Doll quilt sounds like a good idea. I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks for visiting!
great idea …. Interesting block that has a star in a star … 🙂