Sunday, December 16, 2018

Old Brown Blocks

About 3 years back I asked for and Orphan blocks as my Thank You Blocks for having coordinated the Block-of the-Month for 2 years running.  I probably got well over a 100 blocks.  I had a lot of fun sorting them and I have been making charitable quilts with them ever since. One stack of blocks particularly surprised me.  It was a rather large stack of blocks which were mostly in shades of brown and white or tan.  I think this color scheme must have been popular in the '80's +/- ?  I had to laugh because tho' my stash is expansive I probably own a total of about 3 yards of brown fabric, maybe not even that much!

Anyway,  nothing like a challenge to get me going.  I kind of split them into 3 groups:  red-ish browns, darker browns and lighter browns.  And out of that grew these three quilts tops.
I felt lucky to find that amber print for the sashing in my stash but it seemed to help tie things together.
This picture shows how I get started.  Once the color scheme is established I put them up on the design wall grouped by size and see if some layout suggests itself.
I deconstructed the block in the lower left to make part of the lower border. 
Then cut up another larger 9 patch block to add to that. 
A few pieces of added print strips to fill in the gaps,
traded out the right border for darker brown blocks, And done! 
This last quilt was actually the first one in the Brown batch finished earlier this year. 
About half of these blocks were so old they were hand pieced.  Imagine!  I'd never get any quilts done if I had to hand piece them!
These quilts measure about 36" x 48", to be donated to wheelchair bound vets program.
It's a great size for these Orphan block projects because there are enough of one type or style of block to make really big quilts.  But the smaller size is manageable.
Happy Holidays!
Cheers, CW

5 comments:

  1. I like the lady with the apron block. Cute. I also like the way the nine patches and the snowballs look together.

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    1. Thanks Kathy! I love the variety in the blocks. I would never do all those blocks on my own but being gifyed them gives me permission to experiment!

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  2. Those colors really made you think outside the box to create 3 great quilts for wheelchair bound vets! I bet they will really enjoy the warmth and beauty of them.

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  3. Thanks, Ya I love the challenge, it's fun!

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  4. My favorite color is brown. So if you ever need any more, you know who to call!

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