When Quilting Gives You Lemons...

...make a whole bunch of lemonade, and that's what I did with these rejects.

 I hate to call them rejects because I think they're beautiful. They're made using a layer cake of Malka Dubrawsky's A Stitch in Color fabrics which Tammy of Marmalade Fabrics sent me to play with. Malka's line is almost as wonderful as her original hand dyed fabrics. I've bought her hand dyes for years and was thrilled to see this fabric.  I combined Malka's prints with some bright Kona cottons and I think they make magic together.

So what's the reject part?  Well, A couple of months ago, Tammy asked me to design a quilt for her using this fabric and I designed this block which is an adaptation of a block in one of my Japanese quilt block books.  I thought it would make a great tutorial because it uses a partial seam in the construction and this is a simple block to practice that skill.

So far so good and then I started sewing and having a ball making blocks.  I was a happy camper working with fabric I adored and a block that made me happy.  I made a whole big stack and used up almost the whole layer cake and then I noticed something...my stack didn't look right.  It wasn't stacking...you know how blocks that are the same size should stack neatly and all those edges should line up.  Well, they didn't, so I started measuring, a little late now for sure.  For some reason, none of the blocks were the same size and they varied widely.  I measured again, and again...hoping that I was reading the ruler incorrectly.  I kept measuring and I couldn't believe what I saw.  I know I could have framed them all and hidden my error, but it wasn't the look I was going for.  I popped each and every block in the trash...disgusted with myself.

Things sometimes end up in the trash around here, but cooler heads usually prevail and rejects get rescued and made into something else.  These blocks got a couple of layers of batting, some fun quilting, bright binding and my signature large grommet and presto I had loads of potholders.

They're great out by the grill on the balcony...

...hanging in the kitchen ready to keep my fingers from burning...

...and I gave some to my mother for gifts and to my son for his new loft.  Now that's making lemonade from a very lemony quilting day.

Have you gotten some of Malka's fabric?  Tammy can hook you up if you're interested.  It's pretty and fun and hopefully you can do better with it than I did.  I think I need to try again.