A fair number of the “orphan blocks” in my (large) collection were made to try out a pattern before cutting the whole thing. I’ve learned (the hard way) to do that for several reasons:
- Some blocks may turn out to be not as much fun as they look like, and I’m doing this for FUN
- Sadly, some patterns come with inadequate or inaccurate directions
- When I make a test block (or two), I haven’t wasted much time or fabric if either of the above problems results in a decision not to make the quilt
- I once cut out an entire version of Storm at Sea only to find that the cutting directions were wrong. Oops.
And for those who don’t know the Storm at Sea quilt, here is my successful version, made at a later date using Deb Tucker’s tools.
Love at Sea was made in 2019 using Deb Tucker’s tools.
Here’s the pattern I tried out most recently. 
I love Zen Chic designs and liked the look of the curves in this one. I made a couple of practice blocks out of scraps. The directions were excellent and the curves were easy to piece.
My practice blocks turned out well
In looking at my practice blocks, I noticed two things:
- Although the blocks are fair size, there WILL be 8 points coming together at each intersection
- There are clever little hourglass shapes at the intersection of the blocks, and THOSE have tiny curved points that must match for the quilt to look good. I hadn’t noticed that until I made the test blocks!
Eek! Look at that lovely hourglass shape with curved sides!
I’m not about to sew something that requires that much precision for 64 blocks! So I have two more blocks for the orphan collection.
That’s why I make practice blocks, and possibly why I have a big orphan block collection 😀
Zippy Quilts 
What a nice way to review a pattern. I’ve never intentionally made a test block. Usually I just dive in, cut a half-dozen block (never the whole quilt), and then start sewing. One pattern I bought from Sew Kind of Wonderful – the Penelope quilt – looks quite fabulous… but as I learned when piecing, isn’t for the faint of heart! Thought to make those blocks while on retreat, but they require so much focus during social time that mistakes could easily be made. Yes, I can certainly see how making a test block would be worthwhile, and will eventually provide you with lots of orphan blocks. By the way, I am noting that your blog doesn’t have advertising (thank you!). I only have a problem seeing the blog text. My vision isn’t good (I think I may have cataracts), so the fine line font and pale gray color are difficult to read – for me. No need to change anything on my account! I just thought you’d like to know. I always enjoy reading your blog posts!
Thanks for letting me know about the font. The average age of quilters is mid 60s, so I probably need to see what I can do about that. BTW, my cataract surgery was a great success–much less need for glasses! So go for it! And my friends and I have noted that So Kind of Wonderful patterns are often less than wonderful in the making, but they sure have some nice designs.
On the top right of your browser window, you will probably have three dots in a horizontal line. If you click that, a large drop-down menu will appear, and it should have a Zoom option. You can just click on zoom “in”, or you can pick an amount like 200% to see any web page larger. You may end up scrolling a lot, but it may help you see anything you want to see! 🙂 Hope this helps!
Thank you, Gwen!
Thank you for thinking to share that information with me. However, I cannot find three horizontal dots. Perhaps that’s because I’m reading blogs from a MacBook? In fact, I can’t find any place on the screen to enlarge it. Maybe it’s something I can change in my program settings.
Ah… I see the dots now. They’re three vertical dots on my MacBook. When I click the drop-down menu, I can see “Zoom.” Works great! Thank you!
Smart approach to quilt block making! Awesome blocks!
Thank you 😀
So smart! It’s one of those things it’s easy to skip because I’m excited to get started, but that way can lay disaster. And I think it’s been really important for me to do tests to figure out if I’m going to like a design or technique. I don’t want to commit to a big project without being sure I’m going to have fun making it (not that there are any guarantees…)
Thanks for agreeing with me! And thanks for visiting and commenting 😀
This is invaluable advice. Thank you
Looks like you do more art of your own than other people’s patterns, but no doubt you try out your idea on a sample before committing to the whole thing.
I tend to rush in enthusiastically and often have to unpick