Orphan Blocks Brought Together.

I finished the quilt!  Earlier in the month I showed you the orphan blocks that I'd discovered on an old design sheet.

I had to lose a couple that didn't fit the colour scheme, and raid the scrap box for a few more squares and strips, but I was able to make a dozen squares.  All pretty random, but it does the job!

Sashed with some purple polka dot from my stash, and then bound with the same fabric.

I quilted it with a loopy meander - nothing fancy.

Backed with this 'winking kitty' fabric, that's another completed quilt!  At the moment its on the back of my sofa ready to cover chilly feet, but it will probably be donated.
 

Improv Workshop with Brenda Gael Smith

 

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to take part in an an online workshop with Brenda Gael Smith organised by Sue of Region 1 Quilters Guild.

It was great fun! If you have any interest in sewing improv circles then I recommend it.  Brenda was entertaining, knowledgeable and well prepared fro the workshop, and she made making these circles (well, some more squircles!) great fun!

These class samples were the outcome of the three hour workshop.  They were made with 10" squares as a start point.

Of course, I didn't leave it there.....

.....after all, if you can make them big, perhaps you can make them small?

I started with 2.5" squares for this little mini, which has finished at just over 5" square.

I should have either made a narrow binding, or perhaps used the facing technique that Brenda gave us notes on.  Never mind!  Lessons to learn for another time.

I haven't decided how to complete the larger piece.  I might do 'drunkards path' style improv blocks to create a border and see where I go from there.

A work in progress!

Going to a Good Home

Remember last week I mentioned tidying out out a wardrobe?  Well, I have to confess that it wasn't clothes I was tidying, but a big pile of quilts.

I'd hope to take them to Project Linus last year, but, you know, Covid.  The pile for donation kept growing.......

So, a couple of weeks ago, Georgie grabbed the quilts that she'd made (with a little help) from the scraps from FabWraps, I grabbed my 'spares', and we finally got them over to our local Project Linus coordinator.

You know what Project Linus is, right? An organisation that gives quilts and blankets to those who need them, named after the character in the Charlie Brown cartoons who dragged a comfort blanket with him everywhere he went.

Jacquie does the most amazing job, taking in quilts and blankets and passing them on to those who need the love and the cuddles.  Care leavers, refugees, those in foster homes....wherever she finds a need she does her best to fill it.  We are so grateful to her for doing this valuable role.  It means that we can carry on making quilts, stitching in love as we go, knowing that she will find them a suitable home.

I'm so proud of Georgie too, for carrying on this style of giving with her scraps.  
 

More Orphan Blocks

 Tidying out a wardrobe, I came across the fleece that had been my design wall for a while.  I think that I took it down one time when I had guests in the spare room (which is also my sewing room) and it had never made it back onto the rail it hung from.

Still faithfully stuck to it was this motley collection of blocks.  Some were experimental disappearing blocks, a couple were left over from a quilt that I'd made, and the others I can't remember about!

I decided this time to make them all into 12,5" squares - the size of the largest block.  Some were sewn together, some were bordered with strips from my scrap bags (I pulled out the purples and greens - but a few blue fabrics jumped in too!).

Things got messy for a while!

Eventually they became this set of 12 blocks - you can see them here laid out with the short sashing lengths sewn on, ready for the final sashing and border strips.

Always good to make something useful out of these play blocks - and somehow even better when they had just been found!