The “Other Donated Blocks” Quilt top

When I wrote about those blocks the other day, I showed you a top I made with some very old blocks, made by hand - which had been given to me by a friend from college - so many moons ago we were friends - now we are pretty much Facebook friends (and fellow believers - her husband is a pastor).

Anyway, with those blocks, I had placed this other ‘set of blocks’ that look to be of similar age but smaller blocks. I think I got them from her as well.

This particular set were both 9 patches and pinwheels. They approximated 7” - sorta. Some of these were hand made while others were made by machine.

 

Some of them are stained. Most were a bit off - though nothing like the last set. They were actually pretty good considering their age compared to those other things.

However, I did have some variations in size - with several not even square. I decided to go ahead and finish the set by making these into wonky blocks as well using the same two colors of fabrics to make the wonky part and the sashing and cornerstones.

I had 52 blocks. I decided to go with a 6x8 layout and use just 48 of them. I’m not sure where the others will go - but probably just with my extra things to be put into a crazy top. (If this top falls apart upon first washing - those blocks will go into the kindling pile.)

Here is the process. This time I had a lot less trimming to do than with the other set.

I added a 3” strip to the sides of these blocks so I could make them “more wonky” than the other set (in hindsight, probably a 2.5” strip would have been fine).


I then trimmed off extra things that were noticeable once I got the strips on. It wasn’t vital with this since the strips were blue and not see-through, but I thought the blocks would be nicer - and not as thick when it comes to quilting, so I did it.

 

Once I finished adding strips to the sides, trimmed and pressed, I was ready to turn them into wonky blocks. I used my 9.5” squaring up ruler for this process.

I laid it out and made half of them going on direction and half doing the other.

The other direction -

So now I had two piles of blocks - some tilted one direction, while the others were going the other.

I decided to sash with the same slightly off white color that I used for the other top - and cut myself 2.5”x9.5” sashing strips. Also 2.5” cornerstones from blue. Once again, I decided to use cornerstones since I my blocks were all bias edges. The cornerstones helped keep things lined up.

I then laid them out the best I could and sewed them together to make a top. Any “mistakes” I made with the top’s layout I figured could be attributed to the theme of the top which was “WONKY”. No problem. I did make a variation from my original plan. However, It is all folded up and going into the charity top quilt tops - ready to make its way to the final stage of becoming a quilt.

Once again, I hope once finished, this one stays together. I plan on quilting this heavily.

It feels very good to get these blocks taken from a pile of blocks in my sewing room to a TOP which can easily now be made into a charity quilt.

I did not put the pinwheels or 9 patches in any type of pattern or layout. I actually was more concerned about trying not to put the same fabrics side by side than I cared about the design - either pinwheels or 9 patches.

Of course, by adding the sashing and cornerstones, I added a lot of work to these blocks, but I couldn’t figure out any other way to 1. rescue them as they were because they varied in size by at least 1/2” up to maybe 1”. and 2. They were different colors with most of them seeming to go together but a few of them were wildly different (those I took out). I couldn’t really use them “as is”.

Once again - I feel like this was a save. Here is the top that is folded up on the table.

Then I put the other one beside it - so you can see how similar yet different they are.

Now when someone asks me specifically if I want donated blocks, I decline. :)

That’s it for today - thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Becky Petersen7 Comments