Orphan Block Adopted by Fat Quarter Family

She was born in 1993 and was quite a beauty. Her mother knew she was special and wanted her to see the world (and the world to see her). She sent her off to live with a quilt magazine editor in the hopes she would win that year's beauty contest. We don't have record of what she won. Maybe it was just the hearts of thousands of readers. She came to live with me soon after and I carefully watched over her, knowing she would wow viewers again. Anyway, she remained in foster care for a few decades, well loved, cared for - and kept away from the dog!

Her time came when I was sent this collection of Fantasy fabrics from Windham and it was a match made in heaven!

Spring Basket with selected Fantasy fabrics

I shared a few other blogposts made with some of these fabrics. Here is the whole lot. Lovely, huh?

Fantasy by Windham Fabrics

Yes, that Spring Basket may look like "old school" but it was tenderly made by her mother, Martha Street. It has a lot of hand appliqué and I especially love the blanket stitch on all of the edges. Here she is from the inside.

12" Spring Basket by Martha Street

Now, back to what I did with this lovely block and her Fat Quarter adoption. Did I make a pillow? Looks like it, right? But, then, I only show two Fantasy fabrics. So many more from the Fat Quarter Family wanted to jump in and surround her with love.

Spring Basket Quilted

Look again at this photo and you can see the butterfly on the left! I quilted this (and you're only seeing the center of the quilt) on my Handi Quilter Sweet 16.

Remember, I'm only working with fat quarters. They measure 18" x 22". What I made measures 42" x 42". That means I had to SEAM things the further I got out from the center. I worked in rounds using 2" cut strips and 2" corner squares. By the time I got halfway, it was time to SEAM.

Back of quilt strips

I know some of you are GASPING. But, I'm working with print fabrics and from the front you honestly can't tell. And if you can, keep it to yourself!

Here is my Spring Basket quilt with that beautiful orphan block, which is no longer an orphan. She has been embraced with love and surrounded with caring strips from the Fantasy Collection. Even the binding was made with a fat quarter (since I couldn't find any fabric in my stash that would do it justice).

Spring Basket Quilt: 42" x 42"

I was really nervous about the binding. I had to measure and re-measure so I would have enough 2-1/4" cuts (that's the size I cut for my binding strips). When I got to the end, ready to stitch the two binding ends together, I see that I won at the Binding Chicken game!

You are seeing the back of the quilt (I sew my binding on from the back and then bring it to the front). I've overlapped the two ends by 2-1/4" (that's what that 2-1/4" wide pink piece of fabric is for). The little cutaway green piece is all I have left!

I won at Binding Chicken

This is how I join my ends. I'm not giving a tutorial in this, but let me say that the tutorials on the internet are PURE TORTURE. You can either teach or not teach. If you can't teach, don't try; you just confuse!

Getting ready to join my binding ends

OK. What's the moral of this story? Go grab one of your orphan blocks and give it a new home. Just add strips around it to give it comfort and love and a feeling of belonging. This was a very easy quilt to make. Not very sophisticated, but love doesn't need to be, right?