Orphan Train rolling once more.....

Tonya has said she will accept my modified challenge...LOL. Not right now, as she needs to finish up a couple of things. Trust me tho, she'll be 'mulling it over' as she quilts...*VBS* Since there seems to an interest, I invite you to step up(or step back) and consider the lowly orphan block. An orphan block is one that wasn't wanted in "the" quilt...one that fell over on the
sideline as you laid out the blocks for your quilt. We all have them...the one that just doesn't work. The color is wrong, or it argues with its neighbor...or it's not the 'look' you were expecting. And then what? Most of us shove them in the scrap basket, or a drawer and there they live til some far distant quilter buys your 'vintage block' collection and wonders why just a single block, unused?
Katie, I'd love for you to 'play along' !! And I say play because it's only suppose to be serious enough to stick to it, but not enough to obsess over . I'm showing some odds and ends of orphans that emerged from my Christmas fabrics box back in 2005(look in Nov. and maybe Dec. of '05) I was thinking of making a christmas orphan quilt, but the tree skirt for DD did me in.
I'm not sure if I will do a Christmas one at this time, or something else.....I'm thinking..*G* Sue in Washington sounds interested also and asked for more information. I'll stick some basic rules(?) on the sidebar tomorrow and we can go from there(or anywhere else you want to leave from).
In my opinion, one the ULTIMATE orphan quilts is shown in my November 13, 2005 post. It's from a book called "First, Nine and Always".
I'll re publish the pictures here tomorrow.. Also you could go and read about Tonya's adventure into orphans, and Bonnie at http://quiltville.blogspot.com/ made one about a year ago. She added a border around it that says something like "Bonnie plays with blocks". Do check that one out also.
I challenged Tonya to make(another)one that uses ALL(varieties)of her blocks. I don't think all her orphans would fit into one quilt...LOL. Either that or it would be giantic! So think about it...maybe pull them ALL out, and choose some to use, or select what you want to work with. Then comes the fitting them together. The more sizes of blocks you have the better...makes the quilt much more interesting to look at. You will need "spacers"...but that idea has been well explained and demo-ed by many pattern designers. Country Threads comes to mind. They also have a couple of really great orphan blocks quilts in one of their books. I think it is the "Use It Up, Wear It Out, Make Do or Do Without" book. I'll have to check and see, I have most of their earlier books.
Orphan block quilts is NOT a new idea...not mine, and certainly NOT anybodys that I can think of....it's been being done for centuries. The quilts don't happen to be the ones that books usually feature or rave about. I think before the African-American quilts began to be shown, and then the Gee's Bend quilts, very little attention was paid to these 'poor country cousins'.
One thing they are NOT is a sampler. Usually in a sampler blocks are kept the same size and kept to a color theme. Now that I think of it, more and more, the BOM quilts are structured like a orphan block quilt, lots of sizes and color combinations, but usually with a theme and a period focus. In an orphan block quilt, anything goes. And you can piece for 'it', if you choose. If you need 4 patches, make them...same with flying geese, etc....but mostly use what you have already made previously. There, hope that helps...at least until tomorrow...*VBS* Please come, join in, play along.