Another Orphan Block Compassion Quilt

I pulled more blocks from the orphan tub before I went to retreat, or, in this guess, I should say rows from the tub. This quilt contains several rows that were not used in projects for one reason or another, I don't remember why. Making a row by row quilt was the obvious choice.

The top and bottom rows were once one long row which was kind of cut in half. One part is longer than the other because I wanted to cut the row on a point. I think this pattern is Rick-Rack nines from one of Bonnie Hunter books. I never did get my bookshelves organized so I can't put my hand on the book to confirm the pattern.

The center row was also a completed row but I don't remember what quilt this was from. The stars were blocks but I set them on point and added the triangles, they look very nice except that two of them with orange squares ended up next to each other 😞.

Leftover dark brown fabric pieces were used in the main body of the quilt. I did have to cut the top and bottom borders from the yardage fabric.

This was a fast and easy quilt to make since most of the rows were already completed, this quilt was sewn in one day, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving!

The quilt measures 55.5" by 71" and will join the rest of the compassion quilts in the 'to be quilted' closet. I'm going to be very busy next spring with machine quilting!

In case you are wondering, there are more orphan blocks waiting to be used. Am I the only one who makes more blocks than needed for a quilt or changes their mind about how to set them so some are leftover?

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Another Orphan Block Compassion Quilt

Returning from vacation can be overwhelming in catching up with quilting projects, where do I start?

I decided to start with the orphan blocks arranged on the display floor, I need room for the weekly Laundry Basket Mystery quilt. I had posted about the blocks in this post.

I have no memory of piecing those courthouse step blocks, I must have been at loose ends when I pieced them. I added several other blocks even though they aren't the same design. A couple of the blocks needed spacer strips added to bring them to size.

A search through the brown/green box didn't find good coordinating fabrics for borders but then I spied the bag with the brown/green fabrics I bought several years ago from the resale table at the Jane Stickle retreat.

This flimsy measures 56" by 75", the brown/green fabrics are perfect for this quilt.

It joins the rest of the flimsies waiting in the 'to be quilted' closet which will happen sometime next spring. 

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, UFO Party, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Orphan Block Compassion Quilt

Earlier this month I completed two compassion quilts. In the same post, I showed you some orphan blocks that were hopefully going to become another compassion quilt but they needed to sit awhile until the design appeared in my mind.

That happened last week and the orphans have become a flimsy.

I took some pictures along the way with the intentions of giving some measurements but I didn't keep up with writing down the measurements.

The blocks in the center are all 12" finished. The sashing and cornerstones finishes at 2". 

The top and bottom blocks finish at 10". 

They don't line up with the 12" blocks but I'm calling this an design element. I did have to add pieced coping blocks. It's 40" wide and 60" long.

The 9 patch blocks finish at 5". I sewed 2.5" rectangles on one side of them while the other side had 3.5" rectangles which means the length of these blocks becomes 10"by 5" finished. These blocks were sewn onto one side and the bottom of the quilt. It finishes as 53.5" by 77". 

I did stay-stitch along the outer edge of the flimsy to keep seams from pulling open. Some people say they don't have a problem but I do even though I make my stitching length shorter when I piece quilts. Prevention is easier than repairs!

I'd like it better if it was a little wider, adding an outside border of the yellow fabric would have made it the perfect width but . . . this yellow is the last of the yellow from the bolt I purchased when I started Hearts & Wreaths. All that is left are squares which will go into their appropriate box to be used in future scrap quilts. 

This flimsy used a lot of the orphans. There is one album block left, 4 of the 9 patch blocks and 2 of the patchwork blocks.  I did not buy anything to make this quilt which was a win-win! 

This flimsy, and the others I have made or will be making, will be quilted sometime next spring. I have absolutely no idea how this flimsy will be quilted but I have decided the best way to start is to stitch in the ditch along the main seam lines that run the full width and length of the quilt.

More orphans were pulled from the box and this is the arrangement I came up with for the next compassion quilt. This is not the final arrangement, it has to rest awhile before the sewing starts.

Someone once asked me why I have so many orphan blocks? What can I say, apparently I run an orphanage!

I am taking a blogging break until the middle of October. See you then and of course, happy stitching! 😉

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Two More Compassion Quilts

Last week I showed you the two compassion quilts that were made from the 'ugly' blocks which actually turned out pretty. I decided to finish the blocks that were made from the 2" box. Most of them were already made, just needed to sew them together. These fabrics I like so much better than the 2.5" squares.

I had planned to just make simple patchwork quilts again, like I did with the first two quilts but then changed my mind. While I was looking at the stack of quilts that Koka Quilts just got back from her long arm quilter, one jumped out at me. It contained 6" finished 9-patch blocks with alternate star blocks. I have some unused star blocks that finish at 6" also.

I went with that idea and I love this quilt!

This quilt finishes at 58" by 70". 

I used every single star, no leftovers to go back into the orphan box.

I did have to rearrange several times to figure out the correct arrangement but it was fun.

For the second quilt, the blocks were sewn into a simple patchwork quilt. 

The patchwork quilt measures 58" by 64", a little smaller than the first one. 

If I did the math correctly, this flimsy contains 1640 1.5" finished squares. 

These two quilts made a definite dent in the 2" square box.

Both flimsies have the same border fabric, it's leftover from another quilt.

These flimsies will be quilted sometime next spring then donated.

So, what's next? I pulled a bunch of orphan blocks to arrange on the display floor. Nothing is going to happen immediately, I need to let the ideas germinate awhile.

I'm tentatively thinking about using the yellow fabrics as sashing. I'll probably add some cornerstones but I don't know what color, what do you suggest?

The center 9 blocks finish at 12" while the top and bottom blocks finish at 10". The little 9 patches finish at 4.5". There are 22 of them, 11 for each side. This quilt is definitely going to require math. 😔

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Ugly Quilts?

I decided to go ahead and sew the 'ugly blocks' together. Since they've been pieced into flimsies, they don't look as bad as I feared. They'll never be favorite quilts but I won't be ashamed or embarrassed to donate them.

Last week you all gave me several good suggestions as to how to set the blocks but I decided to just keep it simple with easy patchwork.

The first finished flimsy measures 59" by 79".

There are forty-eight 8" finished blocks in the center, set 6 by 8. The narrow brown fabric is leftover from a long ago project. The outside border is fabric from my mother's stash so it's old, from the 80's or 90's.

Here's the flimsy displayed on the grass.

I didn't mean for the quilt to become as large as it is but that is what the quilted wanted to be, why argue with a quilt flimsy?

The second quilt is made from the same blocks, again arranged 6 by 8.

This time I didn't add the narrow border, just the dark brown fabric so it's slightly smaller measuring 58" by 72".  I'm not sure why this flimsy is that much shorter than the first quilt, I probably measured wrong, oh well.

The dark brown border adds some zing to the flimsy. The first quilt looks more dull and muted but the same fabrics were used in both quilts!

I know I had said I had over 100 of these blocks pieced but guess what, I miscounted! I needed to piece three more blocks for this quilt which was okay, I'm glad to not have leftover blocks.

The backings for both quilts have been pieced, a soft yellow fabric that was gifted to me years ago with the understanding it be used in charity projects. 

The binding for both quilts has also been sewn. It's going to be very scrappy, using whole and partial strips that are similar to the fabrics used in the blocks.

Sometime next spring I'll spend a month or so quilting compassion quilts to be delivered to the cancer center at our local hospital. 

Someone commented last week that they only sew with pretty fabrics, they don't have any uglies. I didn't buy all those yellow toned background batiks, they were gifted to me by Nanette. She joined in some summer sew-along several years ago, I don't remember how long ago but it was before covid. She became frustrated with the project, took all of the bits & pieces and shoved them into a bag then mailed the whole mess to me. I looked at the pattern and decided I didn't want to deal with the pattern. That was my evening work that winter, taking all those blocks apart. That is where all of the yellowish background fabrics came from.

It feels good to have these fabrics out of the 2.5" box. Now I need to finish piecing the blocks from the 2" box, I might as well go ahead and get those blocks sewn into a flimsy also.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Zippy Strippy Compassion Quilts

The last two compassion quilts are finished. I pieced the center sections before I went to retreat in April using an old jellyroll that has been guilting me for years. Deanna and I both bought the jelly rolls and extra fabrics years ago at the Pumpkinvine quilt store. She finished and gifted her quilt long ago, I didn't.

Remember when jellyrolls were first invented? Quilters were making zippy strippy quilts, some even participated in races to see who finished their quilt first. 

The problem with a zippy strippy quilt was it was too wide and not long enough. You could add borders which made it larger but then it was too big for me to quilt on my sewing machine. 

I started sewing these strips together but do the final doubling. I had a longer pieced strip which I cut in half to make the center. Sorry, I didn't take a picture.

I added borders to my centers and quilted them with simple straight line vertical quilting. The peach colored quilt was quilted in the ditch with lines 2" apart. The turquoise border quilt was quilted 1/2" from the seam line in the center then in the border. Both quilts were stitched in the ditch around the center sashing. Very simple but it works! 

They both measure 45.5" X 63.5".

This is the end of my machine quilting binge and I'm glad to be finished. Eight quilts have been quilted, five of them will be donated. The other three will be gifted eventually.

In the meantime, since I pieced these quilts, Michelle has published a jellyroll book, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts. Several bloggers made quilts and posted about the book. I won a free e-book from Quilting Jet Girl just by leaving a comment on her post. The next time I make a jellyroll quilt, I'll use one of the patterns Michelle designed, they really don't look like typical jellyroll quilts.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Free Motion Mavericks, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Two Compassion Qults

This week I have two compassion quilts to show you. The first little quilt finishes at 41" by 50". The blocks were leftovers from a quilt I pieced probably 20 years ago, time to move them out. I posted about the flimsy last November.

As usual I did simple machine quilting. 

Using white thread I quilted through the purple chain then stitched in the ditch along the edge of the HST blocks. It still needed more quilting so I horizontally and vertically along the seam line every 4" which went through the center of the HST block.

The white border has quilting on both sides. 

I did mark a design in the border with a disappearing pink marker but I couldn't see it so I just kind of did my own thing. The border fabric is so pretty though, hopefully it will cover my poor quilting design. 

Years ago I had pieced two simple quilt tops to spiral quilt and donate. I quilted one and thought that was enough spiral quilting. The other quilt top was the perfect size for the back of this quilt.

Maybe they'll decide they like the backing fabric better and use it as the top side.

The second quilt was a store kit I bought at Caroline's last July and pieced in October.

The kit is named Trip Around the Cottage, a play on Caroline's Cottage Cottons. The flimsy measures 67.5" square.

I liked the touches of gold in the fabric so I pulled this thread to use for the quilting. This quilt has easy quilting, I stitched in the ditch on the side of all the seams. This was enough quilting so I called it finished.

I challenged myself to not buy backing fabric for these small quilts, I had these fabrics in the stash so that's what I used.

I did prewash the red fabric (which is more maroon then red), it bled a lot but the excess dye finally left.

I'm pleased to say that neither quilt has any pleats or puckers on the front or back.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Free Motion Mavericks, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts