A Tale of 2 Charm Packs

Fabric manufacturers are doing a great job of finding unique way to market their fabrics. From little 2.5" squares to 10" squares to fat quarters to 1/2 yard bundles, there are lots of ways to get a whole collection of coordinating fabrics without having to buy yardage of each piece.

 One of the fabric designers I love is French General. Their fabrics are rich and have an old world feel to them and I think they'd look very much at home in any heritage home.

I bought a couple charm square packs (5" squares) of their "Madame Rouge" line and pared them up with an off-white tone on tone that I had on my shelf. I wasn't sure that the off-white was a good choice as it seemed too bright, but I like the way it makes the reds and golds pop.

The first quilt I made was a pattern from quilter Carrie Nelson's book "Another Bite of Schnibbles". The pattern had some half square triangles and some quarter square triangles and a sweet pieced border of half square triangles.

And I still had some pieces left from those 2 little packages of charm squares, enough to make this other little quilt in a tradition Flock of Geese pattern.

Quilting was just in the ditch along the seam lines on the larger quilt, and diagonal lines on the smaller one. I still have a couple squares left of the charm packs, but they will just get added to my scrap pile. 

I'm pretty impressed that I was able to put two quilts together with a couple charm packs, a little background fabric and a bit of yardage for binding (This was a solid from a previous French General line of fabrics, not a perfect match, but pretty close!)

---Ann

Quilt Retreat

It's been a sluggish Monday morning for me - but that's pretty normal after spending a weekend quilting with friends at a quilt retreat. From mid-afternoon Friday to mid-day Sunday, we had no responsibilities and could sew to our hearts content. I'm just sorry I didn't take more photos to share with you!

Penny's quilt in progress

 I did some sewing on my sweet grand-daughter's quilt. The layout will not be the Sudoko-style layout I showed you earlier, but I think this one will be a little calmer with a little more white through the quilt.

Plan C - pattern by Carrie Nelson

 This pattern is one that I marked off to try from Carrie Nelson's book "Schnibbles times Two". The pattern is called Plan C and this is the smaller version of the quilt. I had some coordinating fat quarters I had picked up at a quilt show earlier this year and used them rather than the 5" charm squares called for in the quilt pattern.

Triple Irish Chain - FOR SALE

This one was the triple Irish chain quilt that I have totally fallen in love with! The colours are just beautiful and the fabrics are so pretty! I sewed the binding on the quilt, thinking I would hand-stitch it to the back when I got home, but my good friend, Imogene, picked it up and finished it with her beautiful hand-stitching! Thanks so much Imogene!

Do you take your projects on the road? Or have a group of friends that you can share your hobbies with? I love the way friendships grow from shared activities!

--Ann