Good evening,
Hope you all are finding some time to work on your special projects. Hard to believe that October is here.
I have been working on the 1930s orphan blocks and I am going to explain using pictures on how to get started. One of the most important things is to sort your blocks by sizes, I also chose to take the appliqué blocks and put them in a separate pile. Because I only have five or six large
appliqué blocks I had to make sure that they will go in separate sections in the quilt. I decided as I did in the Civil War orphan block quilt to make my units about 24 1/2 inches tall.
We will begin with an appliqué block and start adding to that. It doesn’t matter what size any of the appliqué blocks are just as long as you remember that your height is going to be 24 inches. So I took a couple of simple squares sewed them together and added them to the appliqué block. It is just like putting a puzzle together.
I then measure the squares that I just added and make sure they are the same height as the appliqué block.
Next I added some nine patches to go across the bottom.
Stitch the nine patches together, don’t worry if they are going to be longer than the unit you have already because they can always be trimmed down.
Across the top of unit I added a row of triangles.
I chose four more blocks to place at the bottom of the unit.
A simple trick that I used when putting these four blocks together was to make the four patches smaller because I didn’t want to chop either of the other blocks. The unit is now 24 1/2 inches. I will continue to use the same height as I work across the unit.
I then chose four larger blocks to place on the side of the unit.
Sewed the blocks together and added them to the side of the unit. I made sure that the blocks measured 24 1/2 inches long before I added them to the unit, I had to cut off about a half an inch.
Chose some simple squares and sewed them together to measure 24 1/2 inches long.
I then added the row of squares.
Next a row of nine patches. Instead of adding an extra nine patch I just added a fabric square so I did not have to cut a nine patch.
Trimmed the nine patches to 24 1/2 inches and added them.
Next I chose another large block that I would have to add other units to before it measured 24 1/2 inches.
I then worked out an arrangement of blocks that I could add on top of the larger block.
The units are added together and measure 24 1/2 inches all the way across.
A couple more rows of squares that were trimmed down to 24 1/2 inches and then added
Another row of blocks.
I did not want to chop off any of the blocks so I added a lattice between them and then trimmed them down to 24 1/2 inches. My unit now measures 56 1/2 inches wide.
Another row of blocks.
More nine patches.
Time to add another appliqué block and add more blocks on top of that to make it measure 24 1/2 inches long.
Add both units together.
Add a row of triangles and some more nine patches, just remembering to keep the height of all the units the same.
First section is now complete, it measures about 24.5″ x 88.5 inches. The blocks went together really fast, it was a lot of fun assembling them. Stay tuned for how I finished the quilt. If you have any questions at all, either leave me a comment or send me an email.
Ryquilter1@msn.com
Happy stitching,
Rosemary
As I have come to know…..you are a design genius! Gorgeous.
Your are so talented! I’m envious! Looks wonderful, Rosemary!
Rosemary! That’s BRILLIANT!
I am new to your blog and found you through a Bonnie Hunter post. I always wondered how to work with the orphan blocks, and so this post has been really useful, thanks. Looking forward to following your progress with this top, it’s very pretty already.
I also found you through Bonnie Hunter. I just have received Freddie Moran and Gwen Marston’s books on Comparative quilts. This is exciting to see how you put all these blocks together. I have accumulated some orphan blocks in my 13 yrs. of quilting. Thank you for sharing.
Rosemary, Thanks for the “HOW TO.” Your top row is so sweet and fantastic. I love puzzles! I may need to start keeping my orphan blocks……………….
You do yours exactly the same way I did mine. I hope others try it and discover how much fun it is!
THanks for the wonderful tutorial! Your blocks are beautiful!!! Can’t wait to see the finished top.
I love watching this grow. Did you already have all the blocks done, like all the nine patches?