Tag Archives: orphan block

Flying Horse Farm Quilts

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Please note if you live in Central North Carolina: One of the guilds I belong to is having a quilt show soon!2024 card.JPEG

One of my other quilt groups makes quilts for Flying Horse Farm, a camp for children with serious illnesses. Here are my contributions for this spring.

This quilt was inspired by Maryline Collioud-Robert’s Carnival Quilt, in which she mixed many striped fabrics with her scraps. I didn’t use her pattern, just her idea of including lots of striped fabric. However, here’s the link to her pattern if you’re interested.

Quilt Stats

Name: Strips with Stripes

Finished size: 60″ x 72″

Designed by: me, with inspiration from Maryline Collioud-Robert

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

 

Here is the second Flying Horse Farm quilt:

This quilt is inspired by the Bento Box pattern I had years ago and made several quilts from. The pattern has been re-issued and I bought it, but I do not like the new instructions at all! Therefore I completely re-designed the construction process and made this my way.

And here’s a peek at the back of the quilt–more scraps used!

Quilt Stats

Name: Bento Box Revised

Finished size: 60″ x 72″

Designed by: me, with inspiration from the original Bento Box pattern

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

These were both fun, easy (as revised by me) quilts. I used the scrappy one at the top as leaders-and-enders and it came together quickly.

 

Finally, here is a scrap quilt called “Blue Sky and Sunshine”–my husband says the name is corny but I like it 😀

Quilt Stats

Name: Blue Sky and Sunshine

Finished size: 61″ x 73″

Designed by: me, using up orphan blocks

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

 

Happy quilting!

More Orphan Blocks

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First, I found this on the blog from Frances Arnold, a fellow quilter as you can tell:

How true!

And the same seems to be true of orphan blocks. Here’s the box with mine, despite my having made multiple quilts from them recently.

Here’s the latest top made from orphan blocks. It will go (eventually) to Flying Horse Farm, a camp for children with serious illnesses.

Blue Sky and Sunshine, 60″ x 72″

And here are a few more made from orphan blocks.

Quilt made using orphan blocks and the BQ5 pattern from Maple Island Quilts.

But look back up at that full orphan box. I think orphan blocks must follow the same rule as scraps!

What do you do with orphan blocks?

Two More Orphan Block Quilts

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As I probably have mentioned, I have over 100 orphan blocks. Some are from swaps, some from blocks I made to learn something, some just extras from quilts I’ve made.

Yes, that bin is full of smaller orphan blocks, with the big orphans stacked on top!

I have made numerous quilts in the past to use some of them up. Here are a few just for review.

Aha! Orphan blocks can be cut up to make new blocks, as I did with my Giant Circles quilt, here

I’ve used orphan blocks to make greeting cards, here

orphan block on bag

This is a great use for orphan blocks. Just attach to a bag, and you have a handmade gift!

Splendid Stars, 51″ x 53″, was made from orphan blocks left from numerous projects

And of course I’ve attached orphan blocks to shirts.

quilt block on a shirt

Here’s another orphan block on a shirt

Recently I was browsing patterns and noticed that the folks at Maple Island Quilts had used one of their patterns to set some orphan blocks, so of course I ordered the pattern.

I have made two quilts. Here’s the first, which I considered the less successful of the two.

Quilt made using orphan blocks and the BQ5 pattern from Maple Island Quilts.

I thought the points coming together would make the design cohesive, but the blocks were just too dissimilar. And yes, there is a “mistake” block that I decided to leave “as is” when including it in the quilt 😀

Oops. But this is not the time to re-make this block!

The second quilt was made with the other design offered in the pattern, and I believe the blocks are more homogeneous as well.

Finished quilt 54″ x 68″, made from BQ5 pattern

Perhaps Elvis helped this quilt be more successful.

But the favorite block is this one. It’s a print from many years ago. I used the fabric to make a quilt for a friend who is a child psychologist.

What do you do with orphan blocks? How many do you have?

And just in case you have a LOT, the BQ5 pattern is available here. It is well written and I do recommend Maple Island Quilt patterns because I’ve never had any trouble following their directions! Several other patterns in the line would work for orphan blocks, too.

Circle of Nine Quilts

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I found this book in my library when I was sorting things for the move and noted that it had an interesting layout for blocks.

It is an old book (2013) but my online research revealed that there is a newer one, Best of Circle of Nine, available from Keepsake Quilting. It looks like that book includes the “best” designs from my Circle of Nine book and the one that preceded it, which I do not own.

So in December when I should have been doing other things, I used the book to make two quilts from orphan blocks.

The first used blocks that finish 8″, and made a quilt that finished 36″ with the border added. That is perfect for a preemie incubator covering, so it’s a win for the orphan blocks.

I should note that the book offers many interesting ideas for pieced sashing, but I thought the blocks were busy enough by themselves so I just used plain sashing and it went together fast.

The second quilt was made with orphan blocks that finished that finish 10″. The quilt was 40″ square without borders, also perfect for Ronald McDonald House.

Of course I couldn’t just leave it at that, so I used EQ to expand the “Circle of Nine” idea to use 25 blocks. Here’s what it looked like:

Design made with Electric Quilt 8

The Circle of Nine quilts were great for using up orphan blocks. I don’t think I’ll make the 25-block version 😀

 

Recent Donation Quilts

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Having said goodbye to these quilts when I donated them recently, I’m showing them one last time just for fun!

Made from scraps

 

Wonky Log Cabin Remix, from scraps

Orphan Blocks
Orphan Blocks
Rescued Dots from a quilt that went wrong

A quilt made years ago, from actual yardage!
Another scrap quilt!

And to my chagrin, there were three others I never even took pictures of!  Anyway, these were fun and I’m now reminded to take pictures of everything!

Those Pesky Orphan Blocks

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What do you do with orphan blocks (individual or just a few blocks left over once a quilt is finished)?

Here is a recent view of my stash of orphan blocks:

Yes, that bin is full of smaller orphan blocks, with the big orphans stacked on top!

Obviously something needs to be done!

I got the orphan blocks out recently and selected all those that finished 12″ square.  I combined them into two donation quilts, which finished 42″ square.

You may (or may NOT) notice that there are both white and cream backgrounds in the quilt.  I say, “so what?”  It would be even less noticeable if there were more of each.  Even with just a few blocks it looks OK to me.  Sure, if I were planning from scratch I might make the backgrounds all the same.  But for a scrap quilt I think the white-vs-cream distinction is much ado about nothing. (Are you with me, Laura?)

Let me know what you think.  Does it look “off” to you?  Or do you not even notice?  Would you do this on purpose, perhaps using white and cream randomly in different blocks?

More posts on orphan blocks to come, for obvious reasons 😀

A Couple of Little Quilts

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When I was going through my orphan blocks recently, I came across two blocks I wanted to finish as little art quilts.  Both were made for a contest some years ago and has since languished in the orphan bin. I’m not sure how many 12″ square quilts the world needs, but I have always liked these blocks, so I decided to finish them as little art quitls.

Obviously this first one was inspired by Piet Mondrian and mid-century modern.  I’ve since seen other quilts made with the same idea.

This second one I have turned into multiple quilts and blocks.  It was inspired by a college design class I took years ago.  At the time one of the “best” things to do in creating a design was to get a serious close-up showing only part of an object.  I still like that idea and use it a lot, along with other things I learned in that class. (Thanks, Mark!)

Do you have orphan blocks that could become little art quilts on their own?

I’m planning a couple more blogs on things to do with orphan blocks, so please stay tuned 🙂

And when making masks for friends and family, don’t forget the children.  They need to wear masks, too, if they must go in public.

Donation Quilt Catch-Up

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I now belong to THREE groups that make donation quilts, and it may be a bit much.  I’ve decided to focus on the group I’ve been working with the longest, both because it was the original and because we donate the quilts locally.  (I fear there’s some truth to Garrison Keillor’s quip that most donation quilts sent to other countries go to hot climates where their best use is as compost.)

I see from my notes that I fell behind on donation quilts over a year ago due to being over-committed.  Duh.  Anyway, here are my recent attempts to catch up.

I found this panel in the SCRAP BIN at a shop where I teach, so I got it for $1 an ounce! The finished quilt is 34″ x 44″.

This top was started over a year ago when I wanted to experiment with half-rectangle triangles. The finished quilt is 40″ x 48″

This was made from slabs swapped in one of my groups. I spy some orphan blocks incorporated into slabs!

This one was done for leaders and enders, and is going to have to be entitled “Nobody’s Perfect”! Finished size is 34″ x 39″

I made this after starting the blocks as a class demonstration last time I taught “Twinkle”. Finished size is 40″ x 40″

I can just hear somebody saying, “Well!  That certainly is a variety!”  It would be more efficient to make the same pattern multiple times, but I just can’t do it.

What are your favorite donation quilt patterns?

 

Quilt for Jill

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This little quilt was made for a woman who has volunteered at our clinic for years, providing physical therapy services to many of our patients who have hard physical jobs. She has accepted a position at another university and will be leaving us next month.orphan block quilt

It started out years ago as a single block.  I’m sorry to say I have no idea where the pattern came from.  After making one block I decided it was entirely too tedious to make a series of them for a quilt, so it went in the orphan block pile.  When I was asked for a quilt block to give to Jill, this one immediately came to mind.mini quilt

I added a border and was lucky enough to have EXACTLY enough fabric left from one of the prints to make the binding.  I used a grid-print backing so it will be easy for people to sign on the back.  The quilting in a spiral did slightly distort the overall quilt into a shallow bowl shape, but that steamed right out before I put on the binding.

Quilt Stats

Name:  for Jill

Size: 15” x 15”

Materials:  Quilting cottons

 Quilter’s Dream Request Loft cotton batting

 Superior So Fine thread used for piecing and quilting

Quilted by: me

Block designer unknown–please contact me if you know so I can give credit

One UFO Makes 3 Quilts!

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I made these “prepared fabric” squares some months ago with John Cage’s “prepared piano” in mind.  Then they sat in a box while I wondered what to do with them.

At a quilt retreat, I got some of them out and put them together into a 40″ x 44″ quilt top for Ronald McDonald House.nov-ufo

So the November UFO (UnFinished Object) project was to do something with the rest of those squares.  I modified them further and made 2 more Ronald McDonald quilt tops, each 40 inches square.

That UFO box is empty!  There were a few scraps for the scrap bin, and 3 blocks for the orphan block bin, but that project is DONE!

Sort of like that turkey…how was your Thanksgiving?