New Homes for Orphans

Orphan blocks that is!

I got the word earlier in the week that preemie quilts would be collected at the next guild meeting. I'd set a personal goal of making and donating at least 12 quilts for premature babies this year. At the end of September I was right on track with nine blankets completed and six of those already donated. So I got out my bags of scrappy blocks and started playing around.


All of these quilts were made from the six inch Shoo Fly, Bow Tie, and Churn Dash blocks I was making a few months ago from my older yardage and scraps. I began by separating the Shoo Fly blocks into piles according to their background values: dark, medium, or light. I knew a strippy set would be fairly easy to pull together quickly and here it is:

It's a little dark, and not at all "sweet," but hopefully someone will be glad to have it. The next one definitely has a more juvenile feel to it, primarily due to the Precious Moments critters I fussy-cut from the large striped print.

I'd had my fill of the Shoo Fly block at this point and got out the Bow Ties for the next effort. Proportionally they seem a little big for such a small quilt top but we're not out to win ribbons here. I really like them set in rings this way. The borders at the top and bottom were added to achieve the necessary length while keeping the top visually balanced.

Finally I got out the Churn Dash blocks to see what I could do with them. This top may have taken the most time to create. I had a hard time finding a subset of blocks that would play well together. I still wasn't convinced until I found this rose print in my stash. Somehow it seems to make the whole thing work.

The quilting that holds the pieced tops to the flannel backs is very simple in all of these quilts. You should be able to click on the pictures to get larger images; you might even be able to see the quilting lines. It's all straight lines that didn't require marking. On the strippy quilt I stitched a giant zig-zag pattern down the narrow lattice strips between the columns of blocks. All the quilts have a double row of topstitching around the perimeters in place of binding.

I have time to make a couple more of these little quilts - the meeting isn't until Tuesday - but I'm not sure I will make any more right now. There are other projects tugging at the edges of my mind. I'm just delighted to be sewing again.