Turn Orphan Blocks into a Quilt with Negative Space

As part of Quick & Easy Charity Quilt Month here, I wanted to show how just a few blocks could be made into a good sized quilt. I knew when our guild decided to make blankets for children in foster care I wanted to make a twin sized quilt. (I think teens sometimes get overlooked and babies get tons of quilts.) But I knew the quilt couldn't be super complicated or else I would never finish it.

The beauty of this quilt is that it uses orphan blocks (you know, the ones you have abandoned in the bottom of your drawer ;) ) and a bunch of negative space to make a large sized quilt. Since the quilt blocks are already made, the time needed to complete the quilt was minimal.

These quilt blocks were from a Block of the Month Club at my LQS from 2003. Yeah, ten years old. It was time to stop storing them and give them a new life. Here's what I did:

I started by sewing four blocks together with 2.5 inch strips of fabric between them. Then I sewed the block panel to a large chuck of fabric that was 44 inches wide.
Next I sewed the lower three blocks together with 2.5 inch stripes of background fabric. Added a piece of fabric to the end that was as tall as the blocks and sewed that strip to the bottom of my first piece.
Then I added a 10 inch strip to the top.
And the bottom.
And sewed a 2.5 inch strip along the right hand side.

Here are some examples of other ways you could use your orphan blocks to make a larger sized quilt. The possibilities are endless. What about blocks around all the outer edges?