Thursday, July 31, 2014

Orphan Block Sampler - ALYOF

Back in April of this year, a friend delivered to me a big bag of scraps for me to play with.  Hidden inside that bag were a few orphan blocks leftover from some of her previous projects. If you have been following my blog long, you know I love the challenge of taking orphan blocks and making them into something fun.  I immediately started thinking what I wanted to do with them.


Right around the same time, I read on the Sew Mama Sew blog that Sarah Schraw was sharing her DYO Sampler and they were having a Summer Sew-Along.  Looking at some of the orphan blocks, I started thinking about using them all in one quilt and making a sampler.
Unfortunately, work got in the way and I had to put a few projects aside for a bit. I finally had some time to work on it this month!


When I am working with orphan blocks and designing a quilt, my favorite way to work on them is to turn up the radio and start putting bits of fabric up on a design wall.  

I had previously purchased an orange peppered cotton by Studio E to use as the background fabric so I slowly began to let the quilt evolve.
Here is an early picture of the process....

At this point, I was only using leftover blocks from two projects.







However, I also had these leftover HSTs from a third project that I was hoping to fit in somewhere.







I soon had the center sewn up and was still struggling a bit with the next steps.  The HSTs just didn't seem to be working no matter how I laid them out.






After stepping away from it for a few days, I finally came up with the idea to just alter the HSTs a bit.  I simply added some fabric scraps from the quilt and created the arrow shapes.


I thought they added a fun design element.















 I considered creating a pieced border with some of the turquoise scraps I had but found I like the quilt as it was.


So now I just had to find time to quilt it!










I decided to quilt the background with some stacked swirls.  I love the texture it created on the peppered cottons.





Thankfully,  I already had some fabric in my stash that would work for the backing, and yes, I picked it up on sale.








It now hangs on thw wall in my kitchen.  I always smile when I walk towards it.  The arrow that points to the left leads to my sewingroom and studio - the right points to the dishes....



I far prefer to take the left path!





 If you are curious about how I usually hang my quilts.  I use old sewing machine needles.  In fact, I use these to hang just about everything in my house.  They leave tiny holes and are extremely strong.    And as a longarm quilter, I always have a large supply of them!


My Button






And as I had this project as my July goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes over at Sew Bitter Sweet Designs, I can cross it off as being accomplished!   You can see what others finished up this month by going here.

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23 comments:

Judy@Quilt Paradigm said...

Love how this turned out! It makes me smile too :) I really like your solution for the HSTs, I prefer my sewing space to my kitchen too!

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

Looks great - so warm and cheery! I tend to use thumb tacks to hold up my quilts for the same reason - very small holes! I'd vote for the left arrow, too! :)

Annie said...

I really like your quilt. My favorites are made from orphan blocks, it's so much fun putting them together, much like a jigsaw puzzle trying to get things to fit.

Kathleen said...

That background really works for this quilt, and your quilting is awesome as well. Love the whole thing. I'd ignore that arrow pointing to the dishes too :)

Kaja said...

What a clever way to use orphan blocks, and the orange really pulls everything together beautifully. Really appreciate the process pictures too.

Rachel said...

Very pretty! That orange is such a bold background choice. Love it!

Julianne said...

Oh I love it, that orange is just awesome! Does that quilt need a home? I know of a good one!!

em's scrapbag said...

Love your quilt! Thanks for the tip on the sewing needles to hang things. That is ingenious.

Susan at TheBoredZombie.com said...

Awesome finish! I love it! Orange makes me so happy. :)

Sandra Walker said...

Love this graphic quilt, love the way you quilted it, the swirls in the orange, the various motifs in the blocks. Wow. Love what you did to create the arrows. So creative.

Sarah Goer Quilts said...

The layout of this quilt is stunning! There's so much to look at but it all ties together beautifully.

Michelle said...

Love how this turned out. Especially love the orange background! It's perfect.

Michele said...

Really fun and I like the bold colors.

Diane Beavers said...

Now I have some inspiration for my orphan pieces (Not exactly all blocks) .
Love the bright orange background...and Yes the left arrow is much more fun path:)
Old sewing needles --wow that is a fantastic idea as I'm always looking for a hanger/hanging device. Thank you for all your inspiration!

Shauna said...

well done, I love your choice of background fabric, it really makes those blocks pop

Vera said...

Looking good and what an idea to hang a quilt!

Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts said...

I love the boldness of the quilt and all the different blocks - there's so much to look at!

Mina said...

wow, you did a great job with the orphan blocks, and I love the quilting

Kris said...

Love your creative design...so cool.

Rachel at Stitched in Color said...

You did a wonderful job with this! Thanks for sharing.

Muv said...

A really bold design - it looks amazing.

Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks!

Love, Muv

Sarah Goer Quilts said...

Congrats on your ALYoF win!

Becca said...

I found my way here from your year of finishes. I'm not so organized that I could put it all into one blog post. Maybe I'll sneak in some summary posts throughout the year. I just wanted to pop in and say that I love this quilt! Everything from the blocks, to the balanced but not overly structured placement of blocks is great. The quilting is awesome, too. Thank you so much for the inspiration!

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