Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Orphan Strip Quilt


I've been "playing" with orphan blocks and strips left over from "cut offs" and quilt backings.  I decided to make them 48" long, just to have a plan.  The other part of the plan was to make one strip a day.  Sometimes that took more that 15 minutes, but not much.

 There's a piece of fabric there from a rice bag yardage that says "Extra Extra Fancy".  So that's my title for this one!

Sometimes I had enough of something to make TWO 48" lengths, so I started making a second piece, or a second "half".  Finally I sewed the two halves together.  nHere's how it looks right now -- long enough to cover a queen bed, but not wide enough.


I think I'll close off the  side edges with a few more strips, and call it quits.

Now I'm interested in attacking my Orphan Box for another go around!
What do you do with your orphan blocks?

Sara

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Sara...I LOVE IT! Just TODAY I made my first 15 play of scraps! Thanks for the idea..because I have sooooo many boxes of them, and I just couldn't throw them away. Tell me, do you have a rhymn or reason for putting yours together. I was trying to use the same set of colors..like browns and greens. It truly is UGLY!!!

Anonymous said...

Victoria..I would like to be added to the list...and how do I stay accountable to you?

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

Sara! I love it! did you see the one my MOD guild made?
http://nycmetromodquilters.blogspot.com/2010/10/group-quilt-1.html

I tend to save my orphan blocks to make my versions of kitchen sink quilts (sampler style, or I incorporate them into new tops... I treasure my orphan blocks... so many possibilities

Ellen said...

Sara, this is great and I love the name. My orphan blocks are all in a small
pizza box. Some of them I just love, but don't know what to do with them.
Love this idea!

Sara said...

Well, Cathy, my method was that I had just used up a bunch of the HSTs made with strips in ANOTHER quilt, and the remaining ones were driving me crazy. They had been left out, and I wanted to get rid of them. I was not in love with them at all. Then I noticed some pieced strips from left-overs hanging on my room divider...Hmm, what if I make more strips with the HSTs?

From there it was just adding one more strip each day--sort of as my "play" time. I looked around at what I had, not too long, and made a choice; then just DID it. Helps to only make one choice at a time, I think.

Mego said...

This is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! What a great job using up those 'orphans'!

Kath said...

Sara you are an artist. If I had tried to put that together it would have been a muddle, but you have brought the scrappiness together beautifully, I love it.

CharlotteP said...

That's lovely, Sara! Beautiful , bright, crisp colours. Look forward to the next one!

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

Luv It! You have inspired me, all this talk about using those orphan blocks. I guess they are just scraps waiting to be put into a big quilt!

glen

Sujata Shah said...

Beautiful use of all the leftovers. I love using the extended backing leftovers for my next projects.

Margaret said...

Sara, your quilt is striking! Love its name!

Nifty Quilts said...

Wonderful! I love these kinds of quilts. I've just been saving my orphan blocks, but you've inspired me to get them out and play!

Chris said...

What a great idea! I love how all of the orphans "play" together so nicely!