Design Wall Monday - Sept 7

My design wall this week is full of orphan blocks. I finished my tumbling block yesterday, and really need to quilt some sandwiches to clean up the unfinished pile. So, I pulled out some of my orphan blocks from previous projects, and put them up on the wall. Hopefully inspiration will strike while I quilt.

The purple on the top left is the center of a block from a quilt I made recently and gave to my mother. The border colour was completely wrong, with the rest of the quilt, so I changed it and started over. This block survied the "unmaking", so it needs a home, possibly as a quilty for the hospital.

Below that is a feathered star. This was my sample block, for a summer star challenge at my quilt guild back in 2005 or 2006. I drafted the pattern myself, so wanted to try it out before cutting into the challenge fabrics. I'd love to turn this into a larger project, but I haven't figured out exactly what to do. This is the quilt that was made from the challenge blocks at the guild. My star is tucked neatly right into the center.

In the center of my design wall is a set of sample block from another quilt. Once I saw the colours together in the block, I knew that they would not work for the recipient. So I chose new colours and started over. It is interesting how many different configurations you can make with just these 4 blocks.

On the left is the orientation used in the quilt. But since I'm out of the background fabric, and can't get more (had to re-think the border on the quilt for that reason), I can't seem to make this layout work with the border fabrics I have. So, something different. I'm leaning towards what's on the wall now - I like the bursting star effect. But I'll give it some time to stew before I make a final decision.

The final piece of the design wall is the kaleidoscope blocks on the left. I finally cut into the fabric I bought some time ago for this specific purpose. Now I need to figure out the layout. I thought I liked the purple, until I looked at it from further away. Now I think that it is too dark, and the quilt will just be a dark mass if I do that. The orange certainly isn't dark :) but it's not exactly my favourite colour (so why is there so much in my stash, you might ask). This quilt needs more thought before I move forward.

So, these blocks are all up on my wall for inspiration while I finish at least 1, preferably 2, projects out of my stack. Check out Judy's blog to see what other quilters are up to this week.