I created a quilt for Benartex as a Sewcial Ambassador using their Modern Vintage: Treasured Collection . I call this Dancing with the Flowers and it appeared in their Fat Quarterly Magazine in April. Dancing with the Flowers: 40" x 40" I used a set of charm squares (5") for those rectangles in the center. The vertical rows are called Stacked Bricks - very traditional. I've never been a fan of orange, but I absolutely fell in love with these flowers on the blue background! The designer of this collection is Rachel Rossi. Set of 5" charm squares I had more of that border fabric remaining and I realized that a scrappy birdhouse quilt top might be the perfect place to use it. These are birdhouses leftover from teaching some workshops over the years. And those hexagon shaped bird motifs just added to the charm. I had a lonely panel from another Benartex collection that begged to be in the center. What do you think? Home Tweet Home : 42" x 49" I quilted thi...

A patch related to Monday's post is the half-square. What I showed on Monday was a square cut into fourths using two diagonal lines. This is only one of those cuts (yes, a small difference but a different looking project). I taught this as a workshop for a year or so and called it Pixie Sticks. We started with 5" charm squares and measured in 1-1/2" at the top and 3-1/2" at the bottom. Then we sliced once and swapped with another charm. Simple Pixie Sticks: 35" x 41" I added the bonus striped strip to give it some personality! Then, my students learned how to set blocks on point. Check out Carolyn's book with SO much inspiration for making one-patch quilts. 20 To Make One-Patch Quilts by Carolyn Forste r. One Patch Quilts by Carolyn Forster

 I'm back with another charm quilt made with a different shape. Carolyn Forster (author of 20 To Make One Patch Charm Quilts) moved on to triangles. We all use triangles in our quilts: half square, quarter square, 60 degree, 45 degree - and so on. I'll move on to triangles later.   20 To Make One-Patch Quilts by Carolyn Forste r. One Patch Quilts by Carolyn Forster What's half a square? Yes, a triangle. But, also a RECTANGLE! And a rectangle is a fun shape to use in a One Patch Charm Quilt. I featured these in a some posts a few years ago. I began with 5" charm squares. 5" charms I cut them in half (and also trimmed them) and stitched them with white. They made the Criss Cross block. Two Criss Cross blocks using rectangles: Unfinished 8.5" I stitched them together for this 56 blocks (8" finished) - 56" x 64" I made a small quilt using 16 more of the blocks: Criss Cross blocks So now you can see what fun you can have with just a rectangle. Carol...

 I came across a new book in my library that features one patch quilts. It's aptly titled: 20 To Make One-Patch Quilts by Carolyn Forste r. One Patch Quilts by Carolyn Forster This reminded me of all my own one-patch quilts I've made over the years. I asked Carolyn if I could share my journey and quilts as they relate to her book. Of course, she graciously said "yes." It seems that my enthusiasm about the book is because she also is enthusiastic about these little gems. The quilt on the cover is a quilt I've never made before. It's a Clamshell and it's always made me nervous thinking about hand stitching the curved edges. Just to let you know: I'm making one right now - I'll keep you posted. Now, let's see some of my own one-patch quilts. Carolyn has 20 lovely projects in order from simple to very challenging. The first, of course, is the simple Charm Quilt composed of squares. Here is a set of 5" charm squares from a few years ago. Any si...

Yes, those little 5" pieces of fabric that you probably have stacks of in your sewing studio. We can't resist them, especially when they are color coordinated. I've shared lots here before, but what I want to share today is my latest quilt in the Benartex Fat Quarterly Magazine . These are from the Modern Vintage Collection : Modern Vintage: Treasured charms Here's the cover of the magazine: Summer issue of the Fat Quarterly magazine I was invited to make a quilt using these charms and some larger pieces in the collection. Here is what I made. I call it Dancing with the Flowers. I cut the charms and used the Stacked Bricks layout. Dancing with the Flowers: 40" x 40" You saw the quilt I made using some of the leftover fabrics and my paper pieced birdhouses. Most of the fabrics are also Benartex in the birdhouses. I call this "For the Birds." For the Birds (still waiting to be quilted) Here's another beautiful quilt done by Lisa Ruble. She has wo...

This little quilt went to live in a new home. Was a silent auction item last weekend. Husband was horrified that I would give up such a lovely quilt. I'm sure hoping the new owner loves all the KF/Brandon/Philip fabrics. Made with charm squares and a simple dresden ruler.   Charming Dresdens  (with ruler) Most dresden rulers are multi-sized. Here's mine with an 8" height. My dresden ruler (comes with Vortex pattern also) I chose to work with charm squares and got two wedges from each 5" square. Here are 80 dresden blades. (I used the 5" horizontal line on my acrylic ruler). Charming Dresdens PDF pattern (no ruler; paper template included) Then, I pieced them together in groups of 5 and added the triangle to the bottom (well: a 3" square with a diagonal sewing line). Finishing the base with a triangle I made 16 blocks with a variety of solid shot cottons for those triangles. 16 Mini Dresden "fans" ready for the background I placed them on white Fai...

Hexagon Thursday? What's that? It's what I'm thinking of at 8:25 am on the East Coast of the USA. I've had these hexagon charm packs for several years. I bought these in 2018! They work with 1-3/4" hexagon papers. The fabrics cut from 5" charms, work with 1.75" hexagon papers I took this first bundle (the greens) and worked with those first: Pinned them to papers (I had to print mine; didn't have a printed set yet from Paper Pieces): I added some solids and made some Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks (variation). SO lovely (not sure what I'll do with them, but it will come to me, I'm sure). But now I think I'm going to make a charm quilt (by machine), combining these with cream triangles. They measure 4" from flat side to flat side, so will finish to 3.5" height. Easy to cut BG fabrics and stitch w/o y-seams. Will keep you posted!  

More destashing! I began with a set of 5" charm squares using my Kaffe Fassett stash. You've seen these before. Various 5" Charm Squares  I stitched them to strips of gray blender fabrics and then cut them apart. Looks sort of crazy that I stitched on the top AND bottom of the strips, but I have a plan. Then I trimmed a bit off one side and cut the remainder in half so that when I press them open they will be a strip-pieced square. Cutting in half and trimming This way I get the parts to my Criss Cross quilt. Parts to the Criss Cross block And this is what the blocks look like. They measure 8.5" square (unfinished) I found a lovely Kaffe Fassett border print to pull it all together. This measures 42" x 42" and it's part of my destashing in my Etsy shop. While it's not a big quilt, it has a lot of personality and would make a great child's quilt with your finishing! Criss Cross Quilt Top using Kaffe Fassett fabrics: 42" x 42" Fun print...

Day Five and I'm talking about 5" squares. They're called "Charm" Packs. They are typically bundled as stacks of 40 or 42 squares. They've been around for a long time, too. Here are a few sets of charms that I've worked with in the past few years. Charm pack of Kona Solids I used these for a blog hop challenge in 2014 where we had to use some Kona solids. Since I wanted a variety of colors but didn't want to spend a lot of money, I bought a charm pack! Clever, huh? I made a Thousand Pyramids quilt and used the leftovers to make my Fractured Jewels quilt. They have been VERY popular workshops - we make the Pyramids in the morning and the Jewels in the afternoon. Both quilts were published in Modern Patchwork Magazine. Thousand Pyramids using the Kona Charm pack above Fractured Jewels as it appeared in Modern Patchwork Magazine Here's a sweet set from Windham Fabrics called Briar Rose. Charm Pack of Briar Rose I first made some Dresden plates with t...

Five years ago I received a charm pack of Briar Rose fabrics from Windham. I'm not crazy about 5" squares, but I thought I'd see what I could come up with. 5" squares of Briar Rose This was 2013 and I was busy teaching several English Paper Piecing workshops. These squares worked very well with 2" hexagons. Don't you just love that little froggy sitting by the river, reading his book? Some squares became 2" hexagons  I put those into a table runner: My Zig and Zag of Hexies table runner Here is the quilting up close. Love my walking foot! My Zig and Zag of Hexies was first a much larger table runner. You can see it here ! Straight line quilting I had some extra charms and was able to get two Dresden Plate wedges from each. Then I finished up the base with a triangle instead of a 1/4 circle. So easy! I quilted it this weekend and I love the happy colors, don't you? Briar Rose with other Windham Fabrics for finishing This...