Fess up. Somewhere in your closet, under your bed or stuffed behind your sewing machine, you have a stash of orphan blocks, abandoned quilt tops and scraps that pull on you, demand your attention, flood you with guilt and leave you feeling restless and anxious. I know I do. Sometimes I mess up a block, but I refuse to throw it away. I put it in my orphan stash in hopes of finding a use for that ugly duckling I created. I’ve got a few quilt tops that I’m a bit embarrassed about, but in my closet they remain– always waiting for me to take them out and love them enough to finish the project.

Shall we tackle our orphan stashes together? Lets dedicate Leftover Monday to extracting those odd and half-forgotten quilt bits and turning them into something fabulous. Even if you can’t rescue your leftover in one week, you’ll increase your quilting productivity significantly by taking one day to finish something that just needs a bit of love in order to shine.

You in for Leftover Monday?

Here’s my first leftover project of 2016.

Last year Cindy and I worked with our mother to complete the Winter Wonderland red work quilt by Crab Apple Hill Studio. I fell in love with this quilt the first time I saw it hanging on a quilt shop wall. Our 78-year-old mother did all the embroidery. We agreed that we would share the finished product with the rest of our sisters on a rotating basis. Last year the quilt was in my home in New York. This year Cindy hosted it in Columbus, Ohio. Next year it’s headed south to sunny Florida where it will remain for two  years.

But…there was one block left over from this lovely quilt. The pattern offers a bonus snowman block and challenges the quilter to find a spot for it on the finished project. But when we finished the quilt, we forgot about this little beauty. It’s been hanging around my sewing room every since.

Today I turned this little guy into the start of a mid-winter wall hanging. The red scraps were a gift from Cindy.

This leftover makes me smile! Share your leftovers in the comments!