For the Love of Solids -- Storm at Sea

I ordered my solids for the Solids Swap on Flickr but they still haven't arrived yet.  It sort of makes it difficult to make what I had been planning to make.  So, luckily I had a few solids in colors my partner said she liked. It's only a small variety and I was hoping for a much bigger variety. I want to work with solids much more in the future too, so I do would to have them in my stash as well.

I have had a Storm at Sea template set for years that I had not used previously.  Today it was staring at me in the face saying, "use me, use me".  This block is what I came up with--it's about 14 inches.  I don't know what to do with it though.  Do I keep on building this larger?  Do I stop and make this into a hot pad.  What should I do?  I'm not very happy with my piecing skills either, but I am keen to keep on and see if I can improve as I go along.  My partner asked for something to hang in the window....  I could do that, but I have no idea how people finish a piece that hangs in the window.  She also asked for a table runner, placemats, bag, etc...  What to do???