Turns Out You Can't Use Everything...

I'm drawn to the challenge of using ALL THE THINGS in my work.  It's basically the point of why I make quilts - quilting is the ultimate scavenger's artform.  It's why I have such a hard time ever getting rid of stuff - supplies, paper scraps, found objects, bits of leftover thread... You will all get to see some of my more outlandish collections in future "Meet the Supplies" posts. They're all just waiting to find their proper home in a piece of art.  But, sometimes even a consummate collector must admit defeat.  About a year and a half ago I found these truly wonderful wooden blocks hiding in the trash outside my local elementary school.  They're clearly teaching tools, though I'm not sure why the school was getting rid of them.

Beautiful wooden blocks.

I had such high hopes for these - I wanted to glue them onto plywood in a grid and then cut shapes from the whole assemblage using my scroll saw... OR, to glue them together to make a 1" wide multi-colored frame for a work of art... OR, to drill holes diagonally into the corner of each block and hang them from the bottoms of my quilts... OR, to glue an image onto one side of each block and attach a tiny hanger to the back to make miniscule works of art... So many ideas! 

However, the blocks proved to be too dense to easily cut with the scroll saw or drill into, and the 1" thickness really made them inappropriate for inclusion in my quilts, and after they sat around in their box beneath my scroll saw quite literally collecting dust for a year and a half, I realized I had to let them move on and find a better home. 

I posted a description with photo on Freecycle, and was thrilled to see how many people had an interest in hundreds of brightly colored wooden blocks!  A young woman came by and got them, and now her husband who is a teacher will use them in his classroom to demonstrate concepts about volume and area.  So really they're right back where they belong! 

I guess not Everything ends up as art...
...but I did end up holding onto a little handful of them, just in case!