The 8,000 Orphan Block Challenge

For the fourth year in a row now, the sewing machines of Holy Trinity’s quilters and our friends continue to hum as we sew quilt blocks and tops to send to Quilts for Survivors for residential school survivors. Several of the quilt tops we make are also hand quilted throughout the year and delivered with our fall shipment (last year we shipped 41 quilts and flimsies and 34 16-inch blocks). These quilts are a symbol of support, respect and love for those who have undergone the trauma of attending a residential school.

This year, we’re also joining in on a fun new challenge. Quilts for Survivors are asking for donations of orphan blocks – you know, those projects that somehow never made it to the finish line and are now tucked into bags and boxes around the house. 8,000 in total! They will be transformed into quilts of comfort, healing and love.

Any and all sizes of blocks are welcome as long as they are made of 100% cotton. As usual, we are asked to avoid fabric with religious symbols, school-related imagery, travel motifs or graphic content as they may be triggering or inappropriate for survivors.

The bulk of the blocks will be accepted in June at Quilt Canada in Winnipeg but they have already started accepting them by mail and have received over 2,000 to date, a terrific start! (These little guys are less than 6".)

Our current orphan block count at Holy Trinity is 64 and we would love to see it grow. The blocks you see are a combo of mine and donations from some of the gals at the church. I'm hoping to collect a few additional hidden treasures from my quilting peeps to add to the total so that can include them in our fall shipment. If you have orphans that you would like to send to a good home, check out this Facebook post.

I been keep my orphans in a little basket and have dug most of them out to send, but, of course felt that this might be a chance to make blocks smaller than the 16" size that they usually request. You know, just to get them out of my system. 

I've been wanting to try a spool block for ages, so I gave it a shot and made two. They are 12" and came together quickly, so a quick win. Not sure that I would ever make a spool quilt but it was a good reason to try out the block. I suspect that there will be a few more sample blocks made before our shipment is packed up in the fall 😉....M