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Monday, October 26, 2020

Scrappy Quilt Top on the Design Wall

When I was gathering the supplies for my UFO of the month project, I found a few more hidden treasures in the closet. In one bin I found some very old orphan blocks and became captivated by the challenge of putting them into a quilt.

1) The pinwheel blocks were from a class I taught several years ago on unique block construction ideas. These were made using charm squares. You can see a tutorial from Missouri Star here. These blocks are the actual practice blocks of the students and some are a little wonky and incorrectly trimmed, and they are spinning every which way. But that's how we learn, so all the good, bad, and ugly are in this quilt!

2) The bowties were from a 2011 class I taught showing 3 different construction methods - connecting corners, set-in seam, and 3D.

This is how the quilt centre looked with the bowties set around the hourglass blocks.


3) In the 1990's when I was a new quilter and the internet was new (do you remember back that far?) I participated in a 9 patch block exchange by mail. Every month we made 9 patches in a certain colour and put them in the mailbox. About a week later we would receive
9 patch blocks from all over the US. I was usually the only Canadian in those swaps. I have a lot of 9 patches still waiting to jump into a quilt. For this project I used up the gold and green blocks.

The sashing and outside border was leftover from the backing of this month's UFO. This quilt top truly is an old school scrappy quilt! Now it's off to someone else in the guild to finish the quilt to donate to the comfort quilt collection.

Finished size: 52" x 70"

Linking up to Design Wall Monday

20 comments:

  1. Great way to use up all those orphan blocks into a useful quilt!

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  2. Good job! I'm sure someone would be happy to have that. The colors meld together so well. Violet.

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  3. What a great use of orphan blocks! I especially like the way the bowties frame the center.

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  4. That's a spare parts quilt that looks planned! It looks great.

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  5. I love using up the leftovers..or the ones that never made it in something!

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  6. An impressive use of left over blocks, and they look so good together - like it was the plan from the very beginning. Good job!

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  7. Aren't you clever?!? I'll bet you had fun figuring out how to combine these hidden treasures into a quilt. Excellent work, my dear!

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  8. Don't you love finding a way to use those blocks and having them go to a good cause?
    Great setting.

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  9. Yep, I remember participating in block swaps and other pioneering internet activities for quilters. No one would guess that you did not plan this quilt in advance of beginning. I particularly like how you used the bow tie blocks as a border. Excellent.

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  10. Amazing how that quilt looks as if it was completely planned to go together that way! Love it!

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  11. What vision! These very different blocks look terrific together. Thanks for sharing.
    Connie

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  12. Wow, I love it! Good job using up all of those different blocks!

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  13. How great that all these blocks now belong on the same playground! I participated in a lot of swaps in my early blogging years--but I was late to blogland as I never knew it existed until the 2000s.

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  14. It really doesn't come across as a "loose parts" quilt. The layout has a planned feel to it. Excellent job! ;^)

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  15. Beautiful use of leftovers and orphan blocks! I wish there were more swaps. I never took part in one since I am new to having time to read and follow blogs, but also because I am Canadian and cross border shipping is such a pain these days.

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  16. Isn't it wonderful how all those blocks came together. I took part in block swaps too in earlier years, and still have some nine patches to use up. They are handy for quick cot quilts

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  17. What a fantastic quilt! Pulling all the orphans into one quilt. It is perfect!

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