Orange Magic

I only have a few scrappy blocks in orange for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge to show you this weekend.

Have I already shared these?

That might be my output for the RSC this month.

But let me tell you a little story about some other orange blocks...

I have a pile of batik blocks for my Bee, Myself & I quilt sitting on the ironing board. They happen to be orange and yellow and pink. On top of them are the scrappy Lego blocks I've been making of late, which I've been thinking I might as well turn into a quilt top at the next opportunity. (We won't even bring up how many quilts I could make out of the boxes of blocks I have in my Parts Department. Or the partially constructed quilts hanging in the closet.) When the temperatures dropped here and the rain moved in I was motivated to fulfill a couple of recent friendship block requests from local guild members. That was all well and good... until I made this one:

9" Cross and Crown or Turkey Tracks or Goose Tracks

I love this block. It was a wee bit fiddly but in the end totally worth it. I want to make more. The problem is, I can see it in so many different color ways that I don't even know where to begin. I kept myself awake way past my bedtime one night, envisioning all the different color palettes it would be fun to apply to that block. Then it dawned on me that it's the same size as the orange Ohio stars and stepping stones I made last year (or possibly probably the year before). I wondered whether I could make some of these and combine them with the Ohio stars and stepping stones in a quilt top. Eventually I fell asleep.

When I got out the orange stars and stones I counted them up and discovered there were already 25 made. That's enough for a 5 x 5 setting. I put them up on the wall pretty much as they came to hand and lo and behold, they looked good just the way they went up! So I sewed them together before I had a chance to talk myself out of it.

Then they cried out for a framing border.

The background of the piggy print is a little on the red side but I liked the pigs so on they went. This made the top 48" square. Another 12" would make it 60," a more generally useful size to my way of thinking. I considered trying to pull blocks from the Parts Dept. to create the border. I briefly considered making blocks (but only very briefly!). After a good rummage through the stash and eliminating half a dozen options, I found the leftovers of a quilt back I'd made. Miraculously, there was more than enough for the 6.5" wide border strips I wanted. I give you Piggies in the Garden:

All I have to do now is come up with a back for this top and hand it over to James for quilting. Every once in a while a quilt comes together like magic. :- )

Meanwhile, I've made up another Turkey Track block out of the remnants of the piggy print.

I'm still not sure what will come of this. I have a strong feeling that there will at least be rainbow turkey track blocks next year though! (You can find the pattern this block came from over here.)

Linking up with the RSC over at So Scrappy.