Medallion Wall Quilt

I loved this orphan block so I decided to use it for this wall quilt.
There is some fullness in the piece but it WILL quilt out!
You may recognize that the block is similar to those in the vertical quilt top I just finished.
They all were class demonstration samples from at least 20 years ago.

What to do with more orphan blocks?

When I taught sampler quilt classes I would have to make the same block several times. I came up with a way to use these blocks. I used similar fabrics in each block and put full blocks and parts of blocks together to make a new design that could stand on it's own.



Panchatantra is made up of one full block and 4 partial blocks. By making careful choices of fabric placement it is hard to see where one block ends and another begins. This is why I added the yellow and green outlines for you to see this. (In private collection)


Minarets was done with the same group of fabrics in a similar manner.


You can see how I used a whole block in the center, 4 half blocks around the edge and 4 quarter blocks in the corners to make this quilt.

Both of these have been enriched by using a border print to frame them. These are both hand quilted.

I'm using my favorite cut, lizards for tonight's Minarets puzzle.

What do you do with those odd blocks?

Years ago one of my goals as a beginning quilter was to make a block of every quilt block there ever was. I had given away all my cotton scraps when those wonderful polyester double knits came out. I had a lot of scraps of those new polyester double knits so I decided to start making quilt blocks.
I had the book "The Perfect Patchwork Primer" by Beth Gutcheon and I was in heaven with all those quilt blocks. I used a pencil and cardboard and made templates and cut out 40 or 50 blocks and put each block in a plastic bag until I could sew it.
I actually did sew 11 blocks from red , white and blue fabrics. Every time I would reorganize or move my studio I thought about throwing them out but never did.
One day they were laying on the floor in the studio and my granddaughter Heidi, who was 7 at the time, saw them. She loved them and wanted to make a quilt with them. I pieced one more block and let her arrange them.
The greatest thing about sewing with PDK was it things weren't the same length you just stretched them to fit!
After I sewed them together we picked a backing fabric and took it to a long arm quilter who quilted it for her. She was so happy with the finished quilt.

The next day her sister Dana who was 5 came over and she wanted to make a quilt too. I had no intention of piecing more PDK blocks. I got the bright idea to get out all the leftover blocks I had made in classes as samples. She put together an assortment of colors and sizes and we made it work with fill in strips. This one too went to the long arm quilter and she too was very pleased with it.

Of course I gave up the idea of making every quilt block there was years ago. No one could ever live long enough to do that. And why would anyone want to when there are so many more exciting quilting projects to do!

I'll bet this is the first time any of you have every done a puzzle of a polyester double knit quilt!


When I hear you laughing about the PDK quilt I know you are laughing with me, not at me!!!!!!!!!!!