I seem to becoming the beneficiary of my friends 'cleaned up' sewing rooms a lot these days. My friend Esther (not a blogger) cleaned out her sewing room not to long ago and gave me serveral big bags of fabric to take to the Guild Flea Market. Which of course meant I could go gleaning!
Amoungst all the fabrics were a number of Orphan Blocks. This particular set were the product of a Row by Row swap that our small quilt group started back in 1998! The blocks are really nice. I think the only reason Esther did not finish the quilt was she got bogged down by trying to make the setting really complicated. With a minimum of seem riping and trimming I was able to simply set the rows straight and out came this nice quilt. It will make a fabulous donation quilt!
I always feel like I've
gotten away with something when I use up some orphan blocks. It's like I'm already more than half done when I start!!! The challenge is to find a good setting or background fabric or some connecting units to pull the quilt together! I like those kind of quilt challenges! What's your favorite quilt challenge? Happy Sewing, CW
Sounds liek you caught an UFO there ... hmm challenge ... starting a new quilt - which pattern to use next, which fabrics to use ... find them in the stash, buy some (not that I really ever have money to buy some) ...
ReplyDeleteAnother challenge I like is learning to like my own creations ... I often seem to do things that I know in a completely osrt of objective way that "work" but I don't really like them, be it the pattern or the colour or one of the fabrics .. or a contrast or just something. So I recently told myself the things I do aren't half as bad as I make them out to be, and all my mistakes are forgivable. And I didn't liek Brussels sprouts when I was a kid, so maybe I just need to grow a little older ... change my view sort of ...
These may have been orphan blocks Claire, but you have made a family out of them! This is a great quilt! My greatest quilt challenge? I probably have too many to list! I guess deciding on which fabrics to use and I still struggle with accurate piecing. I think I put too high of expectations on myself!
ReplyDeleteIt turned out very sweet!
ReplyDeleteYou're a quilter after my own heart. I just can't ignore orphan blocks, or piles of trimmed triangles, or abandoned strips, or any of the myriad of things that others don't want or don't know what to do with.
ReplyDeleteThis donation quilt is wonderful! You're right about a simple setting often being enough to make parts work together. That's enough for this group and someone is going to totally enjoy its unique style and cohesive rows. Well done, Claire.
It's not my favorite quilt challenge, but it's certainly my most common quilt challenge -- turning unwanted scraps and discards into usable projects. They can be larger share quilts or lap quilts or place mats. I'm lucky to have been in a guild that found homes for any projects we could finish and wanted to donate.
I guess my favorite quilt challenge is actually forcing myself to work on MY quilts for a while, forgetting for a while about making something out of discards.
this quilt came out great! it will make a great donation quilt. good for you finishing it.
ReplyDeleteI have to say challenges are hard for me I always think my quilt is not as good as it should be compared to others participating in the challenge. Its one of my goals for next year to get involved in a few challenges and just make the quilt to the best of my ability and in my style….not worry about being so "artistic" with it!
Kathie