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!

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.

 If you are interested in more ways to follow me, you can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin', Feedly, Instagram, Google +, or get my blog sent right to your email inbox by entering your email address on the right sidebar!

I will be celebrating this finish with others at My Quilt Infatuation, Pretty Bobbins, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF, Fabric Frenzy Friday,  Richard and Tanya Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts, Sew Can She and  Freemotion Mavericks.