So much variety in your orphan tops and blocks!

 

Welcome to another post featuring YOUR orphan blocks and tops! Louise here, filling in the words to go with Kat's mighty fine photos. With everything Kat has on her plate, I'm so grateful that she takes the time to make these quilts shine in their school pictures. 

The first quilt features a garden theme. The four sections look like they were sewn together by the 

same person and were perhaps meant to be small wall hangings. Such pretty little panels! 

I added a neutral background to combine them into a single lap sized piece and put more garden themed fabric on the back. Easy, wonky Baptist fan quilting adds to the coziness.

Using a similar technique, I combined these five panels of blocks. I call orphan block groups like this "chunks." That means the blocks were already sewn together, but aren't big enough to make an entire quilt even with big borders. They often can serve as center medallions. This batch of chunks shared a similar vibe so I pieced them together on a black background so they would float. 

On the back, I used some fishing themed scraps, including trout, boats, fishing reels and a panel. Perhaps an avid fisherman will end up with this quilt.

Frances B. donated these sweet nine patches. What is it about quilt blocks with tiny piecing that just makes them so darned cute? This top only needed a few borders to come up to the perfect size for Covered In Love. 

I added this beautiful large scale butterfly print to top and bottom. It was also donated, and too pretty to waste, so I used every last scrap of it on the back as well.

This quilt is made almost entirely with blocks donated by Priscilla and Jan. Purple and green are one of my favorite color combos!

The embroidered purple butterflies in the center were an eBay find. I have no talent for embroidery, so it's a real treat to play with this kind of stitching. If you have orphaned embroidered pieces, don't hesitate to donate them to CiL.  

Quilting around embroidery is a little challenging, so I outlined the motifs and stippled in between. The rest of the quilt has swirly quilting and the overall texture is pretty yummy!

Don't you love house quilts? It took a village to make this Village quilt! Marianne got the ball rolling by making the center neighborhood of super cute houses and trees. 

Instead of adding simple borders, I added 4" and 5" blocks in autumnal colors. I had a big variety of blocks in the orphan bin and they play nicely together. I'm guessing at least five other quilters have their hands in this piece. 

And no neighborhood is complete without some friendly dogs! The dog park is around the corner on the back. I'm sorry they are standing on their heads but Blogger wouldn't let me flip them over. Bad Blogger, no biscuit.

Here's a more modern quilt that also represents several makers. I recognize Jan's blocks. Do you see any of yours? I selected blocks with orange, green and navy and set them in the navy sashing. What to use for a border, though? Hmm, I think I saw a cream fabric with some sort of design in those same colors, lurking in the back of a drawer. What was that design?

 Ah yes! Chickens! Who doesn't love a good chicken fabric? I think they add whimsy to any quilt.

And yes, I had lots more chicken fabric for the backing, too. I might have a chicken fabric problem.

Here's a lovely churn dash piece, donated by Barb. She actually sent in two, so you'll see the other one next time. Each block features floral fabrics in purple, pink, yellow and green. 

I had a nice Asian-inspired hot pink fabric with metallic accents, and used that for the border and backing. A pale yellow binding makes a nice frame for this pretty quilt. Thanks, Barb!

Wowsers, look at all those kite shaped blocks! What a labor of love this top was for the maker.  I love the high contrast in each block, which makes the overall star pattern bold and striking.

Each of the dark pieces is tiny, finishing at 1/2". Thank you, talented and patient person who made this small top! To bring it up to size, I added an inner off white border and then strips of scrappy triangles. The triangles were donated already sewn together, and I like how they echo the acute angle of the kite shapes. 

More triangles and triangular light houses on the back. This piece was a challenge to quilt because of how many seams came together at each star point. I chose a type of orange peel shape that avoided sewing over the thickest parts; after washing, it all softened up nicely.

Here's a modern beauty: spinning stars on navy background, donated by Priscilla. Isn't this an eye catching design? Priscilla did such a great job placing the darker colors on the outside with the pale blue in the center. It must have taken a lot of planning to get right! 

I only needed to add a wider border and bind in same navy to make it "float." I'm so glad the extra navy fabric arrived with the top so it all matches perfectly.

And finally, here is a small quilt, suitable for the NICU. Each of the nine blocks features a wonky center with a cute cat print, surrounded crazy-quilt style with coordinating scrappy fabrics. Such a fun design!

Check out that kitty face! I wanted this piece to have tons of quilting texture, so I went with much tighter swirls than I normally do. The resulting crinkle is very satisfying! A bold striped binding finished it up.

Whew! That was a long post! Thanks for sticking with me to the end, and thanks for all your donations. I'd love it if you'd leave a comment and share which quilt is your favorite. I get a big kick out of how varied our tastes can be. It also helps me when I have doubts about a piece I'm working on and pushes me to move further out of the color comfort zone we all can fall into.

Covered in Love is a 501(c)(3) charity that donates quilts to patients dying in the hospital, over 1000 so far! The May/June block drive is live now.  Check out the main post HERE if you want to get involved. 

Linking to  Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday