Need help with orphan blocks.
 

When my DMIL past away I was given her quilting stash. Among the many UFOs she left I discovered these squares I thought I would be able to do something with.
As I don't know how to appliqué, I can't add appliqué squares. I do have more of the background fabric. The pieced square is slightly smaller then the other squares but I should be able to cut the others to the same size. The smallest square is 12". Do you think these squares are from a specific quilt pattern or would they be a sampler. I would love to know what her intent was for these.
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I also have these 5 squares but have no more fabric to add additional squares. Are these squares easy to make, if so I could probably buy some fat quarters to add more. Should I use just 4 and build borders around them and make a pillow cover or bag with the one left over. These are 12 1/2" squares.[ATTACH=CONFIG]431558[/ATTACH]
The final item I would like to make larger maybe lap quilt size. It is approximately 36" square. The squares are 2" finished. Any and all help would be appreciated.

All are beautiful!

I think I might just stitch the blue and white ones together and frame them (blue mat maybe?) or make into a wall hanging.

The strip squares are easy so you could make more of them for as big as you want.

And yes, you could add borders to the third one. I would probably pick a print for the next border, followed by another solid.

You could even frame the beautiful blue ones individually to share with other family members if that is appropriate.

What a nice rememberance of your MIL. The blue & white do look like she had started a sampler quilt. I think I'd make a table topper with the 4 . Easy enough to add another color in too. You could also begin adding to each individual block- maybe adding yellow strips, to increase the size and then make a nice lap quilt.
The string blocks are easy & fun but to do something not a quilt I might use them for a couple of totes for grandkids. If there are young grand daughters maybe a doll quilt. I used a couple that size & made a sewing machine cover.
As for the purple one I too would enlarge it & make a lap quilt. I'd sit down at the drawing board & just draw out some rough ideas.
Best of luck & be sure to let us see what you do

I love the blue ones. I am not that good at applique so I always admire someone else's work. The strippy blocks, you could separate the top block to go one block high and 4 wide to finish out that quilt. Add some borders and it would be a great baby or preschool quilt.

I see someone has already suggested a table topper for the first one in blue and white. You could add blocks if there is more of the same fabrics, or alternate them with medium blue solid blocks.

The second one is easy to make. It's just 3 strips of one width, cut half square triangles out of it with the long side of the triangle against the edge of one of the 3 strips. The strips are quite short. You can make more blocks, the fabrics don't have to match, just be scraps of similar colors.

The last one, you can just add borders until you get it the size you want. Or one border, then more squares, one or two rows, then another border. Again, you don't have to have matching fabrics, only something with similar colors.