What's In The Box ~ Part 10 ~ Orphan Blocks

 Who doesn't have a box of test blocks, miscuts and orphan quilt blocks? Oh, I'm sure there's one or two of you out there with the will power to use them up immediately or toss them in the trash.  And I'll admit I've done it a time or two myself.  

But the older I get the more frugal I get when it comes to quilting. 

I've done a little research on making quilts from the orphan blocks and Improv quilting. Those who do this style of quilting make it look easy, but I know it's a learned skill.  My style of quilting is a bit more structured.

Repetitive quilt blocks and well-balanced quilts is my style.  Can a dress right dress kind of quilter, like me, be taught to think outside the box and go willy nilly?  

There's only one way to find out and that is to jump in and give it a try.  The worst thing that can happen is I make a few quilts that I don't like and that's nothing new.  There's been a few over the years that made me wonder "what was I thinking?".

So, here I stand at the edge wanting to jump in with both feet but I'm just not ready to make the leap. The plan for these three bags of misfits is ...someday.  I realize, someday, is how my UFO's have become out of control...sigh.  

These will go to the bottom of the list because they overwhelm my dress right dress quilty brain.  For now, I'll work on the simple and easy to finish UFO's.  One has already been chosen, and I will start it when I have a slot in my 3-quilt rotation. 

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What's In The Box? ~ Part 5

Hello friends!  Digging through the box of UFO's has produce some sweet treats for us today. 

Heart Pops is the sweetest of them all!  It was an impulse pattern purchase in January 2023.  It's fun and cute but I don't think I'll be making more.  Just to be on the safe side it will be stored with the pattern and background fabric. 

Next up is the Vortex quilt I started 2 or 3 years ago. The plan for this one was to be my Sunday project. A stress relieving, scrap busting beauty.  She's as sweet as honey to look at but my patience for the tiny strips of fabric and the constant trimming of the blocks didn't suit my fancy for very long.  

She's not on the top of my list for finishing but I'll keep her around and work on her again...someday.

 The next UFO is scraps from a super scrappy quilt.  I started cutting the strips for it around 2010, give or take. Without a quilt plan or doing any quilt math I cut one 2.5 strip from every fabric I had in my small stash at the time. Yep, it was overkill even for the small stash.  Most of these fabrics were purchased at Walmart and Joann's. The yellow gingham is a polycotton from mom's stash.  And there is one designer fabric.  It was my first designer fabric bought in a local shop.  I can't remember the designer's name. But I do remember she quit designing a year or two after I purchased the fabric.  

Three quilts later and I still have scraps.  If you would like to see the 3 quilts and their storis click here.    This one needs to be finished so the story can have a happy ending.  It's going to the very top of the must finish list. 

The last UFO for today is the yummy blue Nifty Nine patches, started in 2014.  I had big plans for these, but it never happened.  They ended up in 2 other quilts. You can see them here and here.

I thought all of the nine patches were used in the second quilt.  But here we are with 45 nine patches and enough fabric to make several more.

I could still make the original quilt plan if I had more of this fabric line.  A quick dig in the stash and... I have more!

I dug a little deeper and found 1 1/2 yards of this gorgeous large floral from the same line of fabric called Paisley Denim by Clothworks.  Great for a quilt border on a smaller quilt.

The fabric pull was added to the UFO with plans of making the quilt...someday. 

After the UFO's are shared with you here on the blog, they are being sorted on my quilt frame as shown below.  

I have been searching for a more efficient and accessible storage system for the UFOs.  My theory is if they are easy to see and access, I will be more likely to work on them regularly, rather than pulling them out every year or two to see what is in the box.

Over the next week or two there will be at least 2 more What's In The Box blog post.  Hopefully by then I'll have a new UFO storage system, and the tote can become storage for finished quilts.

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What's In The Box ~ Part 4

 Hi Friends!  Today we'll be taking a look at two projects from the UFO box.  One embroidery project and one applique block of the month project.

Let's start off with the embroidery project started back in 2014. It took some digging to find information on my blog for this project.  Here's the link to the one blog post found.

All of these embroidery patterns were found on Pinterest and were free to use.

My handwork is not the best but it's also not the worst.

Here's a closeup.  So many french knots!  

Of all the embroidered blocks, this one is my favorite.

It's the gingham umbrella...too cute!  In the pattern the umbrella was embroidered, no fabric.  I added the gingham because as you all know I love gingham.

If I'm not mistaken all the blocks with added fabric are changes I made to the patterns.

By the way, your eyes are not deceiving you.  Some of the blocks have a white background fabric and others have a light grayish background.

Why the different background fabrics?  I haven't a clue.

It might have been a design choice at the time.

Or the only fabric on hand at the time.  We may never know.

I do remember not having any plan for how they would be used.  I was just having fun doing something a little different.

Many of you many may not know this.  Mom taught me how to embroider when I was in elementary school.  I didn't learn to quilt until I was 17 or 18 in Home Ec class.

My first finished quilt block was a fan block.  I swore to never make another quilt block.

 But I did make a quilt, just not with quilt blocks.  My first quilt was made in 1986 or 87.  A yellow gingham chicken scratch alphabet baby quilt.  Chicken scratch embroidery is what you see on the heart below.

Enough of walking down memory lane.  Take a look at this shoe.  Not the best choice of fabric.  

The closeup looks better but I still wish I had used a different fabric. 

As of today the embroidered blocks are going to the bottom of the must finish list.   Putting them all in one project still cramps my brain.   So, let's move onto the next UFO, it's easier on my brain, but it too will require some quilty brain design work.  

This BOM was purchased when a local quilt shop was going out of business.  The complete BOM was not available, so I bought what they had at a greatly reduced price.  Notice the one block set on point.  I'm pretty sure this was a medallion style quilt, the on point block being the center.

The fabrics were included with each pattern.  This is what made them such a great buy.

I made one block and lost interest.

Upon further inspection, I didn't even finish this one!  Why oh why did I not finish stitching down his ear?  Must have been that crazy.... SQUIRREL!

I did an online search for the remaining patterns to this BOM. No luck. This means I will need to do some designing.  To make a quilt from them I'll probably need to buy fabric since I have very little dark fabrics in my stash.  Sigh.. for now, it too will go to the bottom of the list to be finished. 

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What's In The Box ~ Part 3

 Hi Quilty Friends!  Today's UFO is a beauty.  This one was started in 2014.  You can see the original blog post here.

Each of the 4 flags measures 34 x 20 with 13  raw edge appliqued stars.

The 5 huge flowers make me smile, who doesn't love flowers?!

All of the templates were neatly tucked in an envelope. Did I plan to make more?

The fabric is from my older fabric stash and have been prewashed but not starched.  Oh, how I dislike working with unstarched fabric.  Well, it's too late to starch now, don't you think?  

 

The red and blue fabrics were purchased at Joann's or Walmart.

The 3 fabrics below I know came from Walmart way back when they decided to get rid of fabric in the early 2000's.  When the fabric went on clearance, I bought as much as I could afford every week and grabbed as many of the free patterns as they would let me take.  Do you remember the monthly free quilt patterns at Walmart?  They also had free crochet patterns every month.

Well, back to my quilt.  The quilt I used as my inspiration was Patriotic Rose.  I planned to buy the pattern until I saw the quilt only finished at 74x74.  I wanted a queen sized quilt. So, I didn't buy the pattern and decided to make one similar and larger.  For my quilt, the stars on the flags were changed because I prefer the look of Betsy Ross flag with all 13 stars in a circle.  The flower was also changed to suit my taste. 

One thing puzzles me...What was my plan for the yellow fabric?  Maybe I thought the blue stars sprinkled around the quilt should be yellow?   I'm not sure if that was the plan but as of today, I like the blue stars and I love this quilt so...this UFO will be moved to the top of the must finish list.

See you soon with another What's In The Box UFO.  It will be one of the two on the top of the box.  Which one would you like to see next?  The red arrow or the orange arrow?

This post it being linked at the following linky party.  Hop over for quilty inspiration.

Melva Loves Scraps: Sew & Tell ~ 12/23/2024

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