ORPHAN QUILT BLOCK IDEAS

Recently, I had an email from Dianna who just stumbled acorss my blog. She is part of a sewing group and together they have tons of orphan blocks and she was wondering about ideas to utilize them. Below is the list of ideas that I emailed her. Hope it helps all of you orphan block rescuers to get going and whip out some orphan block quilts so that you, too, can be orphan quilters like me! 1. First, of course, you need to check out my book, Orphan Block Quilts: Making a Home for Antique, Vintage, Collectible, and Left Over Quilt Blocks!!! ;) 2. How about an orphan block exchange or swap? Have the members sort their orphan blocks, keeping like blocks together. You could make it into an auction and use the money to buy supplies to finish quilts to donate to charity such as Project Linus. 3. What about an orphan block challenge??? Each particpant has to pay a fat quarter to participate. Set a deadline and a few guidelines (such as how many blocks must be used or the size of projects). Display the completed projects (which could be quilts, purses, bags, wearables, etc.) and everyone should vote on the "Best Orphan Block Project." The winner, of course gets all of the fat quarters. 4. Have each member put a set number of orphan blocks (groups if possible or same size blocks) into a brown lunch bag. Add a few fat quarters of coordinating fabrics or left over fabrics from the blocks. Put all of the bags together, mix them up, and each person picks a bag. If she gts her own, she would need to select a different bag. Then , do an orphan block project challenge. 5. What about an orphan block round robin? Each member makes a quilt center using orphan blocks. She then puts it into a bag with any coordinating fabrics she wants to add. Then she passes her project to another member. Continue to do this until each member has had a turn adding to each round robin quilt. (if there are a lot of members, you could have two or more round robin groups). Set rules for each border if so desired or do an "anything goes." 6. Instead of a round robin do a row robin using orphan blocks! 7. What about a mystery orphan quilt project? I designed one that uses either 9" or 12" orphan blocks for a guild last year and we had an all day sewing workshop. It was great fun! AND all of the quilts were amazingly terrific! 8. Members could pair up to create projects using both their stashes of orphan blocks together. These projects make great charity quilts. 9. Have everyone bring in their orphan blocks. Keep track of how many blocks each person brings. Sort all blocks by size. Hopefully there will be lots of blocks in a single size. Then each member picks up the same number of orphan blocks she brought, hopefully in groups of the same size (she may get back some of her own of course). Having a group of blocks in the same size makes it easier to put together a project. 10. If all else fails, donate them to a good cause or send them to me, the Orphan Quilter!!! :)

Guilty

Okay, I admit I must be one of the worst bloggers right now. I haven't blogged since the end of April. I've never gone this long without blogging. It's not that I didn't have anything to say, actually it's been quite the opposite. It's just that I've been quilting like a mad woman and haven't been spending any real quality time with my computer. No computer time, no blogging. I've been so lax in computer time that I'm actually checking my email on my ipod now. Sad, isn't it? Now that that's out of the way, let me tell you what I haven't been blogging about. May was a really busy month. Of course, I worked on several magazine pieces and made my deadlines. I also made several stash projects including another quillow, a table runner out of left over batiks, and a miniature quilt for an upcoming guild quilt challenge. Speaking of guild, I didn't even make it to the May meeting. I also worked on a few projects for my upcoming book -- I really need to buckle down and get serious about the projects. Of course, I also worked on research and writing for my book, too. I had an Orphan Quilt trunk show in May. It went well and the dinner beforehand was delicious. Of course, all of these activities were fitted around my day job at the public library, a few other part-time jobs, and my home responsibilities. The end of May brought some real heartache in my family, though, as we said good bye to our beloved canine companion, Poohka. This was really hard. He was a very special and unique Shih Tzu, with a smile and he even stomped his foot (yes, like a two year old's temper tantrum) when he didn't get what he wanted fast enough. His kidneys were failing rapidly and there wasn't anything more the vet could do. What hurt even more was the fact that my other furry pal, Gizmo has been absolutely bereft in the absence of his doggy brother. I think he's finally adjusting somewhat but he's very clingy and doesn't like me to leave him. Giz has even taken to sleeping on a pillow in my studio while I sew (he's never done this before). We've all had to make adjustments in our daily lives. It's ironic, really, when you realize how much your day revolves around a beloved pet only after he or she is gone. Smile on, Pookie, smile on.... June is turning out to be just as crazy as May was. In addition to trying to spend more time with Gizmo, I'm working on one project for the magazine and I just found out today that they accepted two more for a pre cut book. Whew -- I'd better start sewing faster. I had another program for the Sew and Sew Guild in Grove City recently too. Very nice group. I debuted my new program, "Fabric Dating Tips and Orphan Block Tricks." It was a fun evening. Next week I have a program for Country Charms Guild -- I'm doing the new one, and I am also doing a volunteer workshop on English paper piecing at the at the local senior center. Well, I see it's getting late so I'll stop here. Hopefully I'll get some photos up soon for your viewing pleasure. I want to show off some of the new Orphan Blocks that have come my way recently. Good Night! I need to go to bed so that I can get up early and QUILT!

In the Good Old Summer Time

Like most of you, it's been really hard recently to keep up with my garden. The weeds are growing as fast as the veggies. It's race with the bunnies to see who gets the beans and carrots first! But the fun is beginning, too, as I've begun doing some of the harvesting. The cukes have been doing well -- there's nothing yummier than fresh cukes out of your garden. Unless of course it's the broccoli or the green beans. I'm not crazy about tomatoes, but they are fun to grow. Our tomoato plants are more like bushes than plants. Does anyone else have crazy tomatoes?? Then of course, this is a bumper year for our two overgrown dwarf apple tress. Yesterday I picked two bags of apples. They're small but they'll make great apple sauce and apple butter. Ah, these crazy summer days.

Of course, I've been doing some quilting as well. Right now I'm working on three quilts for the April issue of Quilter's World. The first top is doen at at the quilter's and I am ready to quilt the second top now. THEN I'll move onto the third and final quilt. Oh, I still have to write all of the instructions too.

About a week ago, I had the opportunity to do an orphan block mystery quilt project with the Happy Scrappers quilt guild. It was a lot of fun -- I hope they all had as much fun as I did. Check out these photos! This was my first orphan block mystery quilt, but as you can see, it turned out great! Each quilter brought her own blocks and fabrics and each quilt turned out great. It never fails to amaze me how it all comes together and that no two quilts are ever the same!