Motivated by Mari

Mari made a quilt - Misfit Toys.

Misfit Toys is now going to AQS Quilt Show in Virginia Beach!!!  Mari shared this fantastic news with me on Friday. I jumped with joy for her.

With Mari

She gushed, I listened.

And in that moment, I knew I had to drop everything and make a quilt using up my leftovers - bee blocks (Honey Pot Bee) and orphan blocks and audition blocks.

Sandra and Elizabeth

I met Elizabeth in Buffalo. She mentioned a quilty term that I had not hear before - Coping Strips.

When the blocks are of varying sizes, she adds strips to the smaller blocks to bring them to the requisite size. These strips are aptly named coping strips.

Now, some folks call them sashing but I believe sashing is used with uniformly sized blocks.
See you can use sashing strips after you have used coping strips to make all blocks uniform :-D

I needed coping something but I chose to use coping blocks (also used coping strips in two places). Or you could call them filler blocks. The Charlie Brown+Snoopy block is a coping block. The improv slab next to it was leftover from Fire Pit, used also as a coping block.

Coping Blocks - Charlie Brown, Cool Leftover Slab from Fire Pit, Warm QSTs

I made coping blocks from leftover triangles discarded from Curry Favor (picture above) and from those leftover from making Doggone Cute blocks for KaHolly. 

Yellow Gray QST is a coping block using leftovers from Doggone Cute blocks

The leftover blocks from Charmed Encore worked perfectly as coping blocks.

Coping Blocks - Framed Charm Squares, 4 HSTs, and a house

I also used a coping strip to bring the red tree block to size. See picture above.
Simple 4-patch blocks made perfect coping blocks, sometimes used singly sometimes in a series.

4-patch blocks, used in a series - left corner

There were some composite HSTs leftover from Animal House. They became houses with mix and match roofs. I tried the same pattern in a larger size. Did not work.  Kinda loses its appeal in that size.

Here they are - three modest houses and one Mac-mansion.

Three modest houses and one Mac-Mansion - UGH

I loved the Blended Scraps Block so much that I made a whole quilt - Shadow of Light. The first block from that endeavor is near the top left.

Finished Flimsy

My experiments with paper-piecing are all here - the black/red/yellow star that was a moderate success, the very pointy 1.5 star, the Tall Tales book block which was a huge success, the two mushroom blocks where I used freezer paper and the As-You-Wish block (envelope+letter) which I declined to paper piece.

Paper Piecing Adventures - Star Blocks and Mushroom Blocks

The lattice block next to the tree block also came from the Honey Pot Bee. As did the Pantry Jar block and the Star Kisses block.

Star Kisses block from the Honey Pot Bee

The BHQ Economy Square Block had me whining because it has 81 pieces in just one block.

The 81 piece Economy Square Block

Before I wrote my most popular tutorial, I made an audition block in purple and red. It finally found a place in here.

Audition Block - Purple Red and Cream

I enjoyed making the strawberry block. Made in three colors. You can see the red one below. Saving the pink and orange ones for the Quilt Guild BOM later this year.
Did not enjoy the Echo block. This was a perfect place to get rid of it, but if you love it here is the link to the tutorial.

The Strawberry (love) and Echo (hate) blocks

This flimsy also has one of the discarded blocks from The Queen's Necklace (top row), next to the leaf block, which I loved so much that I have made several. Yes, they will make a quilt - just not yet.

Leaf, Kaleidoscope and Tall Tales Blocks. Pantry Jar, As You Wish and Tree Blocks

In the picture above, there is a coping strip (with a snail) next to the leaf block. I recently got that sliver of a fabric in the scrap bag that Sandra brought for me when we met in Buffalo!!!

This is one quilt with so many stories!!!

Some posts are laden with pictures. This one is definitely laden with links. I am trying to give credit where credit is due. It is possible that I missed some. If so, please ask and I will supply the link/inspiration in the comments.

Thank you Mari - I started because of you.

Thank you Sandra - I completed it because of you. So that I could make it to this Dreami party.

Lots of color = One Happy Quilt

Who has inspired you lately? I'd love to hear from you. 

I will be liking with all my favorite linky parties, see sidebar for full list.

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OOPS!!!

I almost forgot. Here are the winners from the giveaway.

1. Solids Kona FQ Bundle to Dottie Bishaw (#30) and Gran Chris (#52)

2. Four warm prints FQs to Kristin (#74) and four cool prints FQs to Frederique (#5)

3. Pink/red scraps to Lisa Marie (#10) and Blue/green scraps to Clare M(#80)

Emails will be sent to the winners later today, unless you are a no-reply blogger, in which case please send me an email. If I do not hear from you in a week, you will forfeit your prize and I will pick someone else.

Thank you so much for celebrating with me. Big hugs to you!!!