Orphan Blocks to play with!

Last night was my quilt guild's auction fundraiser. Members brought books, patterns, rulers, fabric, abandoned UFO's, orphan blocks, and more from their own stashes, and we all had an opportunity to bid on new-to-me items. There were some beautiful half finished UFOs that went for next to nothing. It's amazing how projects get stuffed into boxes or bags and abandoned, only to resurface and go into someone else's stash. 

I knew I didn't have a lot of spare cash to spend, so tried to look through everything before the meeting to see what items I really wanted to bid on. I successfully bid on a pair of X-Block rulers, a stack of 5 quilt patterns of interest, and hoped to get a stack of random blocks that could be turned into something amazing. As expected, they were among the last items to come up for bid and I bid higher than I expected to, but won out and for $45 got this gorgeous collection of nearly 40 blocks! It was more than worth it to support my guild. They range in size from 13" down to 4" and include pieced blocks, needle-turn applique, hand embroidery, curved piecing (curves done by hand, straight seams by machine), paper piecing, and even a few signed blocks from an exchange several years ago. I'm not sure whose collection they came from, but I'm sure grateful to have them in mine!

From the first time I looked through that stack, I knew I wanted them to make several different projects. The top block in the stack was the Dresden at the top left of the first picture. That and the trees had me looking deeper and then two blocks in particular caught my eye. One was this one with the scissors cutting fabric, and the other is the appliqued hand with the heart on it. That's almost exactly the same image I used on the label of my friend Adele's quilt, "Enlightened Souls."

So, now in addition to all of my own UFOs and voluminous stash of projects waiting to be conceived, I've added a whole bag of beautifully made blocks to do something amazing with. Let the creative juices start flowing!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz