How about these gorgeous feathers on a little pink scrap quilt. Today, I'm revealing all of Becharmed!
Such a pretty little scrap quilt, if I do say so myself! This quilt is a sister quilt to the Scrap Happy baby quilt from last year,
which was a pattern in the Charm School (affiliate link) by Vanessa Goertzen.
Since I had so many pink/purple charm squares left over from Scrap Happy, I designed Becharmed. Making the 4-patch blocks for the center plus the borders was a snap using The Charming 4-Patch - Fast, Fun, and Fabulous tutorial. For a quick refresher, charm squares are sewn together, cut, sewn, and cut again, creating 4-patch blocks quickly and easily - without ever sewing a 2.5" square.
Along with the written tutorial, there's also a video to explain the process.
Now back to Becharmed. Once all the 4-patch blocks were done, some became the center block, while the others were saved for the border.
Cream charms create both the inner and outer borders. Here's a little secret: it's the backside of those cream charms that make up the borders. The front side was either too dark or had too much print, but the backs were perfect, so don't be afraid to use the backside of a fabric. And with the open space of those cream borders, feathers just seemed a natural choice - they show up beautifully!
Balancing that is the simple crosshatch quilting on the 4-patches - super easy! If you're looking for a fast baby quilt, check out Becharmed! Happy Quilting!
Yesterday I received an email from Vicki at Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine, informing me that my quilt, Scraplicious Florabunda, is the March Quilt of the Month on their online extra page!
Truly made my day!
Scraplicious Florabunda is one of my favorite quilts, not only because it's pretty to look at, but it was so spontaneously put together. So proud of how I used those weird scraps! Sorry, no pattern here! I will say that this quilt now sports a tiny green, hand sewn, ribbon just inside the binding edge. I had entered this quilt into PIQF, and the judges comments where that the border was too big. I was mystified by the comment, wondering if there was some unwritten border proportion that I didn't follow. So, I talked to Cathy Wiggins, who judged at Road2CA this year, and she suggested the pop of green at the edge to help. Not wanting to remove the binding (who would?), I contemplated how I was going to do that and decided on adding the green ribbon, sewn by hand so the stitches are barely visible.
And now the quilt looks even better!
Doesn't that look great? I think it helps tie it all together. Thanks, Cathy, for the suggestion. This quilt will go in one more local show, then it's on permanent display in my house. So pull out those scraps, and start sewing! Something unexpected and beautiful can arise. Happy Quilting!
