Working with orphan blocks

What do you do with your orphan blocks, the samples you make before making a whole quilt, the blocks of the month from guild (if you belong to one), the odds and ends that didn't make it into a quilt?  I keep mine in a pizza box until I get an idea about how to use them.  Sometimes I even throw them away if they've been in the box too long.

My pizza box was full, and there were some nice blocks.  I made a table runner out of some blue homespun Ohio Star blocks, but I still need to take a picture.  I may take that down to the florist/gift shop to sell.  

Then I decided to make a small quilt for Bags of Love, which supports kids going into foster care.   I used some string blocks that I didn't feel like making more of and some guild blocks of the month to make a little quilt measuring about 50" x 50".  The picture shows only part of the quilt which was on the bed in the sewing/guest room.  But you get the idea.  I found that the string blocks needed to be trimmed to a uniform size that ended up being 11", so I used blue sashing around them.  There's a thin border of blue around the whole quilt, too.   I plan to quilt it very simply when the batting I just ordered comes in.  

While I wait for the batting, I decided to attach a binding onto the Christmas block of the month quilt that came back from the long arm quilter last week.  I'll take a beauty shot tomorrow if the sun is right.

Next, I started cutting some triangles out of orphan blocks.  I plan to make more with strings as a ongoing project.  I had thought of making Bonnie Hunter's leader and ender project, but I like this better.  Right now, I'm thinking I'll alternate neutral and colorful triangles.  Of course, this could always change as I go along.  

Right now, there are more triangles cut out of orphan blocks than there are string ones, but I figure the string ones will dominate soon enough.  My basket of colored strings and my bag of neutral ones are both overflowing.  I'm using newsprint foundations just to make sure they aren't too wonky.

In going through my orphans, I see that I have quite a few small blocks that could be set with white or cream to make some table runners.  But right now, while I have the dual feed foot on my machine, I am going to focus on binding the Christmas tree skirt.  Then I hope to quilt the orphan quilt and the round robin Christmas one.  Maybe I'll even finish quilting the first three rows of Dear Jane.