A Charming Christmas

Summertime is almost here so that means the new collections of Christmas fabrics will be arriving in the stores soon.

So it is the perfect timing for the Fat Quarter Shop to release another one of their shortcut quilt patterns.  This festive project uses Charm Packs.

The Fat Quarter Shop asked me which Christmas collection I wanted to use and I picked Little Tree by Lella Boutique.  I knew it was going to look great with the White Grunge fabric I wanted to use for the background.

And here is my finished quilt!

Isn't it fun?

This shortcut pattern is called Charming Christmas.  

You can download the free pattern here.

The quilt finishes at 59" square.  You can easily make it a little bigger by making the outer border a bit wider.  The Fat Quarter Shop also has the pattern written so that it uses mini charms.  You can find that pattern here.  The mini finishes at about 26" square.

It is hard to see in the full photo, but I quilted some holly leaves and berries on this one in a white thread. It is a pantograph that I have had forever.  It gives the quilt a nicely quilted texture.

If you make the quilt, I do have a little trick to share.  When you make the triangles for the tree, the pattern has you just cutting off those bonus triangles,  I sewed an additional line and ended up with these 12 nice sized HSTs.  They can easily become some potholders or my plan was to make a table topper.  

You can see the finished mini here.

Photos of white quilts are so difficult in the summer months.  In the sunshine they are so bright, and I didn't have a spot of shade without any sunlight sneaking in....but I am not complaining!

If you are interested in making one of your own, the Fat Quarter Shop has kits available in a similar fabric line. Or order some holiday charm packs or mini charm packs and get started early on some holiday gifts.

I am not the only one making this quilt - If you want to see more versions, you can check out the Jolly Jabber blog post about them.

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A Finish From Leftovers

I STILL can't share my shortcut quilt finish for the Fat Quarter Shop blog hop.  But I am going to share the little finish I made from the leftover fabric!

Any time I make a quilt design that has large "flip corners", I try and turn the bonus triangles into HSTs.  I had only ten approximately 4" little blocks to play with.

I decided to turn them into this fun little Christmas table topper.  It measures about 14" square.  I just had to dig through my holiday scraps and find an extra charm square to use framed as the center.  I then just did some crosshatch quilting to finish it up.

I was going to just put this away for a hostess gift for the holidays but I ended up gifting it already to cheer someone up who lives in a small place but loves to decorate for the holidays.

I even had a fat quarter of this cute tree print to put on the back.

Hopefully I will be able to share my big Christmas quilt soon.  The Fat Quarter Shop is still waiting for fabric to arrive for the kits.

Are you already planning your quilts for the holiday season?

Some of my longarm clients are already scheduling time on my frame for theirs.  It is hard to think about that already!

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Charm Pack Tree Skirt for FQS

I have teamed up with the Fat Quarter Shop again to present another one of their shortcut quilt patterns.  This festive project uses Charm Packs.

I present the Charm Pack Tree Skirt.  

You can find links to the pattern here.

I decided to use the Vintage Holiday fabric and white Kona cotton for my project.  For the pattern, you need 48 charm squares, so if you only have one pack, you might be able to add from your stash to stretch it for the skirt.

But using two packs allows you to toss out prints that might not work well.

Here is my finished tree skirt.  I was originally going to deviate from the pattern and make my center round.  But I decided against it and ended up still cutting it different than what the pattern calls for.

I guess I always have to be different!

I took my finished skirt outside to take photos of it around a tree.  But I really had no tree available!

And photographing a Christmas tree skirt in the springtime is challenging.

The prettiest photo has it draped next to my clematis.

Not exactly a winter scene!

The project was really fun to make.  

I plan on sending this to my niece who is just setting up her first home.

For the quilting, I did a simple ribbon quilting.  I thought it was appropriate for the project.

If you are interested in making one of your own, the Fat Quarter Shop has kits available in a similar fabric line. Or order some holiday charm packs and get started early on some holiday gifts.

Need help with the assembly?  There is also a YouTube video you can watch.

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Some LOL to lift the Spirits!

I have been in such a sewing funk lately!  I go into my sewing room and have zero ambition to work on any of the projects waiting for me.  So when I found out I won a gift certificate at FabricsNQuilts for participating in the 4th Annual Scrap Quilt Challenge, I decided to buy some fun charm packs and make another Charm Pack Cherry quilt.

I chose the bright colors and fun prints of the LOL line by Me & My Sister Designs.  A simple quilt pattern in playful prints would hopefully motivate me to get my creative groove back.

 

 

Once I found some time to sew, in no time at all I had the quilt finished!  

The LOL collection worked really well with the pattern.  I did kick out the stripes and a few of the pieces with a white background.

 But they worked perfectly on the back where I needed a bit more fabric because the backing I was hoping to use just wasn't quite big enough.

 

 

If you remember, I made this pattern once before with the Twenty Three line and some Kona Ash.  However, I messed up the pattern and sewed a few blocks together incorrectly. It is hard to say which layout I like best!

The Charm Pack Cherry Quilt is free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop. This quilt was the perfect project to help me find my sewing mojo!

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A Happy Accident

After seeing Barb's (Mountain Quiltworks) Charm Pack Cherry quilts, I knew I wanted to make one for myself with the two charm packs I had squirreled away of the 2Twenty Thr3e line by Moda.  These had been on the shelf for over a year so I was ready to get them sewn into a quilt.

 When I told Barb I was making the quilt, her comment to me was "It's super easy!".  And it is...but super easy doesn't mean I can't somehow get the blocks sewn wrong differently.  Never liking to get out my seam ripper unless I absolutely have to, I laid out the blocks and saw they would still go together.  Perfect!  Works for me!!

I actually really like how the piecing turned out (probably more than the original layout).  If you like the look too, I think I somehow just sewed all the blocks the same (rather than half one way and half another).  Each sized piece lined up in columns so I just added a quilted squiggly line to match the piecing.  For a background fabric, I used Kona Ash Gray.

 I used a piece out of my stash I had recently bought on sale for the backing.  In fact, a friend showed up to "steal" this piece from me minutes after I finished quilting it.  She was with me when I bought it and was wanting to use it to back a quilt she had just finished.  Too Late!! Guess we are just going to have to go shopping now!

The Charm Pack Cherry Quilt is free pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop. It was super easy and went together in an evening.  I am all out of charm squares or I might consider making another!

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True Colors Baby Quilt

The quick story of a fun little quilt!

My postal carrier handed me a package from Julie at Jaybird Quilts filled with these wonderful items.










I instantly cut the charms into 2.5" squares and paired them with some solid white squares.

They were quickly chain pieced....turned into 4 patches and placed on the design wall...

...and before I knew it, a little quilt was born!









I pulled a piece of gray Michael Miller Quarter Dots for the backing and sewed in an inset of text print to make it long enough.

Now it needs to find a home so it can live happily ever after!

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