Turning orphan blocks into doll quilts

Each year my quilt guild makes about 1,200 doll quilts for the kids in our local Head Start program. If everyone in the guild makes four of them, then we meet our goal. Some make a whole lot more, some make none.

Right now I’m feeling a little guilty because I’m in the none category. So I threw together some of the extra pieces from the Triangle Boot Camp class I teach to make a doll quilt. I just took one orphan block, added sashing and a border to make a cute quilt for some little girl to enjoy.

I’m planning on practicing my free motion quilting when I finish the doll quilt. I want to learn how to do feathers and this seems like the perfect size for a piece to learn on. Maybe by the time I finish four doll quilts I’ll be ready to try feathers out on a larger quilt I want to keep.

How do you practice new quilting stitches? Do you work on charity projects, scraps of muslin, trace patterns on paper or just go for it on the real deal?