Makin' do

Last night I didn't feel like working on the applique I 'should' have been doing. I just wanted to do some mindless piecing, so I grabbed those 8 log cabin blocks I had made by mistake and set about putting a border on them.

Rather than just have the orphan blocks sit in a drawer like they probably would have done in recent years, I knew I had the perfect use for them. It was Cameron's 4th birthday on 20 June, and his party was on the 25th. One of my Mum's friends had kindly surprised us with a lovely birthday cake and a whole platter of little cakes she had made to have at his party. I wanted to do something in return, so I decided I will give her this little table topper.

It only took a matter of minutes to add the border, and I had a perfect half yard of something in my stash box to use on the back, so I just needed some batt. This project is only 30" x 20", and I didn't really want to cut a piece off my roll that size, so I rifled around in my scrap boxes and found enough offcuts to make up a batt.

I don't know if it's possible to see in the picture, but I pieced the batt out of 13 pieces. I get teased a little by people in the know about using up pieces of batt that they would throw away, but I figure the less I spend on the batt that can't be seen, the more I can spend on pretty fabrics and thread!

I quilted the blocks quickly in the ditch and did a big meander in the border, then added a binding also from my stash. Later today I will stitch the binding down on the back. It feels good to have something to give away, and made entirely from stash and orphan blocks!