The Left Over Block:Yes They are Yummy

Beth Shibley at Live Laugh Quilt

It's simple economy. You're working on a quilt. You cut up strip after strip of segments and sewed them together. Were we counting? Don't be silly. We were sewing!

From Dianna at Wedding Dress Blues

And somewhere in the middle of all of that there's an extra block. Yepper. 64 blocks needed. 65 blocks available. What does divide evenly with 65? 13x5? That's an odd quilt size. 
But we can't waste it, can we?

From Lily's  quilt

Before this all leads to tears, let's think it through.
No one sews evenly every time. Inexplicable things happen to your fabric that sometimes makes a block too large, too small, just unusable. Aren't you glad you made an extra?

From Jess at Life Under Quilts

A left over block is a wonderful starting space for a new quilt. It's like a special seed sitting safely in your sewing room, waiting to become a wonderful new and different quilt.




It's not new either, although it always looks modern because it's largely random. Now we call them Orphan Block Quilts. But we've always had left overs and we've always served them up later.

From McCalls Quilting

How can we stretch a small pile of left over squares into a quilt?

• Put it in the center and put borders around it.
• Add an extra kind of block to fill in.
• Add an odd and unexpected element.
• Put lots of left over kinds of blocks together.
• Give up on the quilt idea and make something else: a tote bag, a pillow, decoration for your jacket, a pot holder. This goes on forever.

Orphan Block Quilts

Tricia Lynn Maloney has written a very helpful book called 

Orphan Block Quilts: Making a Home for Antique, Vintage, Collectible and Leftover Quilt Blocks. You'll find that a very nice guide for your journey into leftovers. They're especially tasty!