Motivated by an empty wall, Emily went into her stash and came up with several quilt projects to help decorate the space.

Her first project was a wall hanging using the Churn Dash Quilt Block Pattern.  The why’s and how’s are addressed in an on-line interview:

*What gave you the idea to make this scrappy thing?
It was at my mother-in-law’s house this past fall. I was going crazy without a sewing project.  I had also really been wanting to do something with these blocks and civil war colors.

*Where did the pattern come from (your brain, online, etc)?
I have liked the broken dishes and churn dash blocks ever since I got into quilting. They were both good blocks to use up little scraps. So I drafted out my patterns, knowing I was going to do a small wall hanging. Once I finished the 16 blocks I decided it needed sashing, but I didn’t love the fabric so I made up the little 9 patches to break that up. I accidentally made them 1/4″ to large. Rather than remake them I just cut them down to size. I like that they are that way.

*How did you pick the fabrics?
They were ones I liked from the scrap bin under the bed 🙂 I was kind of choosing ones that were civil war era colors. The sashing is from my fabric bin. It’s leftover from table cloths at our wedding reception.

The composition of quilt hangings and framed text evolved.  In her own words she says, “I’m not much of a decorator, so when I hung my frames on either side of the wall quilt it was too asymmetrical. I had seen people hang things using an embroidery hoop on Pinterest and I had a few lying around. A Pinterest success story for me! So I used up a few more of the wall hanging scraps to make this Missouri star block.”

“If I had thought a bit more I would have had the stripes all going the same direction but I couldn’t be bothered. However it’s not totally random, so I’m happy with it.
It filled the gap.” 

What do you think about using a striped background?