• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
    • FAQ
  • TUTORIALS
  • RESOURCES
  • QUILT ALONGS
    • Little Forest BOM
    • Mouse Trap BOM 2025
    • Shattered Star QAL
    • Winter Star QAL
  • CONTACT
  • SHOP
  • Shannon Fraser Designs

Shannon Fraser Designs

Spreading quilty joy one stitch at a time!

Orphan quilt blocks find a new home in the Lunar Eclipse hand quilted wall hanging

September 23, 2021 by Shannon 8 Comments

Lunar Eclipse Hand Quilted Wall Hanging - Shannon Fraser Designs: Clever solutions for your orphan quilt blocks so they don't go to waste! #handquilted #orphanquiltblock #sustainablequilting

I made a quilted mini!

Shocker, I know – ha!

And the funny thing is I had no plans or intentions on making this one. She just happened!

Here’s how it all went down.

While I was designing the Lunar Eclipse quilt pattern, I did some tests on the block construction. As you know, with quilting there are often lots of ways to tackle the piecing. My goal is always to design a pattern that is efficient and easy to piece, makes good use of your fabric and, above all, is fun to stitch!

After making a series of Lunar Eclipse quilt blocks, I realized I could modify the block design to reduce the number of pieces to cut and make it quicker for you to whip together.

That’s the great news! But then I was stuck with these orphan blocks that I didn’t want to chuck.

So, I pulled the orphan quilt blocks into a mini quilted wall hanging 😊

Lunar Eclipse Hand Quilted Wall Hanging - Shannon Fraser Designs: Modern fiber art for your home interiors. Make great use of your orphan quilt blocks by stitching up a modern quilted wall hanging. Makes a great gift too! #handquilted #fiberart #textileart

*This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission.

Quilting Direction

With so many projects on the go, I fully intended to machine quilt her but as she hung out on my design wall (here’s a tutorial to make your own), I couldn’t help but think she’d look pretty cute with some big stitch hand quilting!

Before overthinking this too much and before I talked myself out of it, I headed straight to my thread storage in search of the perfect thread colours.

Lunar Eclipse Hand Quilted Wall Hanging - Shannon Fraser Designs: add quilty texture to your quilts with big stitch hand quilting. Here I featured both Aurifil Thread in 12wt + some pearl cotton thread is size 8 to up the #quiltytexture #handquilting #fiberart

Thread Selection

It didn’t take me long to settle on these pretties, which match the colours in the *Spectratastic II fabric collection I featured in this quilt perfectly. I loved the texture and hand-stitched details I snuck into the Lunar Eclipse lap quilt I made and wanted to take that a step further with the hand quilting in the mini version.

To help keep things on point, I opted to plot my lines with a *Hera marker to try and keep the curved stitches balanced throughout the project.

Lunar Eclipse Hand Quilted Wall Hanging - Shannon Fraser Designs: Turn your orphan quilts blocks into a modern mini textile art for your walls! Brings sustainable quilting into your practice and never waste another quilt block again! #handquilted #orphanquiltblock #fiberart #wallart

Binding Details

To frame her out nicely and keep the focus on the centre motif, I opted to bind her in the dark teal fabric. I love how the dark colour gives the mini a bold frame and means the white is just a subtle pop. I paired it with this gorgeous dark green 28wt thread to tack down the binding with a blind stitch (tutorial on how to do this here). I love how clean the finish is and helps the quilting on the back really pop!

Lunar Eclipse Hand Quilted Wall Hanging - Shannon Fraser Designs: found the perfect thread colour to match the deep teal binding from the Spectratastic II collection. Love when I can find the exact match! #binding #aurifilthread #color #colormatch #quiltbinding
Lunar Eclipse Hand Quilted Wall Hanging - Shannon Fraser Designs - this is a great project to feature your orphan blocks or simply to spruce up your walls and add texture to your home décor. #quiltedwallhanging #handquilted #wallart

She’s now found a forever home in my BFF’s new home. I finally got to see the place over the summer holidays and hand-delivered his housewarming gift! What’s fun is that the colours I selected are the very colours his living room features! It was totally meant to be 😊

Materials Featured

What’s so fun about making smaller quilts is that you don’t need a ton of materials to make them happen. Here’s everything I used to create the Lunar Eclipse hand-quilted wall hanging:

  • Lunar Eclipse quilt pattern – I just made 4 blocks and stitched them together!
  • *Spectratastic II designed by Giucy Giuce for Andover Fabrics:
    • *Chartreuse
    • *Turquoise
    • *Yellow
    • *Navy
    • *Blue
    • *Gray
    • *Dark Teal
    • *White
  • * Aurifil 50wt cream thread for piecing
  • * Aurifil 12wt turquoise thread for hand quilting
  • Gray & Yellow pearl cotton thread for hand quilting – *from this kit
  • *White thread for hand quilting
  • *Navy thread for hand quilting – *from this kit
  • *100% cotton batting
  • *Leather thimble
  • *Hera marker
  • *Needle for hand quilting
  • Thread gloss (optional)
  • 28wt Aurifil Thread for hand binding
  • *Straw needle for hand binding
Lunar Eclipse Hand Quilted Wall Hanging - Shannon Fraser Designs: fabric features in both the Lunar Eclipse Quilt and the Wall Hanging. The subtle print and gorgeous colors from Giucy Giuce's Spectratastic II are just perfect for modern gender neutral quilt. #quiltingcotton #andoverfabrics #quilting

Getting Your Quilted Mini Qll Hanging Ready

If you’ve been wondering what the best way is to hang your quilted wall hanging up on the wall, then I’m happy to share two fun options to check out:

  • Classic Hanging Sleeve – works for any sized quilt
  • Hanging Quilt Tabs – perfect for your smaller projects
Lunar Eclipse Hand Quilted Wall Hanging - Shannon Fraser Designs: Take your orphan quilt blocks and created a modern fiber art wall hanging to all texture, color and dimension to your home! #handquilted #modernfiberart #textileart #modernart

Have you used orphan quilt blocks to create a modern mini quilted wall hanging? Share in the comments below what your favourite way is to use up orphan quilt blocks!

Happy stitching!

xo,

Shannon


Never miss a post – sign up for the weekly newsletter.

This post uses affiliate links. For more info, visit the FAQ page.

Share this:

  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Related

Filed Under: Quilting Tagged With: Hand Quilting

Join the newsletter

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joan Hinchcliff says

    September 23, 2021 at 11:21 am

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Hope you have a super day and enjoy your dinner and Hubby time together!

    Reply
    • Shannon says

      September 24, 2021 at 7:50 am

      Thank you so much, Joan!! It was a wonderful day filled with all the yummy food!

      Reply
  2. Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl says

    September 23, 2021 at 1:38 pm

    What a stunning mini and I love your hand quilting details that draw me right in to see more. I have definitely also used orphan blocks for a mini, but I don’t always have enough extras, so I’ll use those for quilting practice. 🙂

    Reply
    • Shannon says

      September 24, 2021 at 7:52 am

      I love that idea of using orphan blocks for practicing your quilting, Yvonne! I should do that more often!!

      Reply
  3. Izzy says

    September 25, 2021 at 6:55 am

    Super cute mini Shannon! I don’t often end up with orphan blocks and the couple of times I did have them, I pieced them on the back of a quilt. I love your hand stitching – it really adds a ton of interest to the mini. Oh and Happy Belated Birthday! I really hope it was a good one. ☺️

    Reply
    • Shannon says

      September 26, 2021 at 6:34 am

      Such a smart use of orphan blocks, Izzy! I’ve only used them on the back of my quilt a couple of times, but I’ll keep this approach in mind!

      Reply
  4. Ally says

    October 1, 2021 at 2:27 pm

    Beautiful! My Lunar Eclipse test mini hangs in my daughters’ bedroom and I love looking at the hand stitching on it too.

    Reply
    • Shannon says

      October 1, 2021 at 6:17 pm

      Aw, Ally, that just totally warms my heart to hear that. I love your wall hanging. The stitches were perfection!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hi! I'm Shannon. A modern quilt pattern designer based in Montreal. My quilting journey started by stumbling upon a half square triangle tutorial and I've been hooked since. I'm now spreading that quilty joy to you! Read More…

Stay up to date

Categories

POPULAR POSTS

Plus Infinity Quilt the scrappy version | Modern Plus Quilt Pattern | Shannon Fraser Designs #scrappyquilt

Bust through your fabric scraps with the rainbowtastic version of the Plus Infinity quilt pattern. Newly updated so you too can breath new life in your pretty fabric scraps!

Oh my, where has May gone?! This month has just flown by! Before May officially comes to an end, I wanted to share the last two patterns I purchased in support of May is for Makers. During these past few weeks, I’ve found so many amazing patterns, which has made it such a challenge to narrow […]

Jolly Jelly mini quilt featuring AGF Sparkler Fusion with snowmen salt and pepper shakers! Quiltmas Spectacular 2020 | Shannon Fraser Designs #foundationpaperpiecing

It’s the most wonderful quilty time of the year brought to you by the Quiltmas Elves. Join the 12-days of Christmas quilty fun and make the 12 free holiday quilt blocks from the Quiltmas Spectacular!

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Join the Newsletter

Be the first to know all the latest

Footer

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions
Shannon Fraser Designs

Copyright © 2025 SHANNON FRASER DESIGNS