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Saturday, March 02, 2024

March Mini Charm Challenge!


Check out these cute ladies!

I love that Sylvia is wearing her "Quilting with my PEEPS" shirt - 

Surely that means it MUST be close to spring?

And what are they holding in their hot little hands?

Mini charm packs given by Sharon, along with a challenge to make SOMETHING from it during retreat using as much of the charm pack as you can.

And did I want to play along? Boy howdy!


Here is Michelle's cute doll quilt made from the charm pack next to her Butterfly Kisses retreat project in progress.


Jennifer's!


And check out the cute mug rug she made with the cut off corners of her challenge project!


Cute St Paddy's Day table runner on the wall - and another charm pack project in the making.

Notice the zippers?


And there is the patchwork parts on the left -

And yes, there is a fire going in the Quilting Quarters - it was that kind of damp, cold and rainy and we needed to make things a bit more toasty.


Zipper pouch in the making!


Tonni is putting borders on hers.

As for mine?


I played hooky and jumped in with both feet!

I asked about rules -  Can I add fabrics. Is there are certain amount I'm allowed to add?

The answer was: "Add as much as you want, just use the majority of the charm pack."  Okie Dokie!

Now take a look at the date on that selvage.  1988.  Do I win?  LOL!


Cute hourglass units!

Click to Play:



I used the charm pack to make 30 little hourglass units, adding more 2 1/2'' neutral squares from the 2 1/2'' scrap squares bin as needed.

And when that wasn't enough I snagged 2 more squares of the charm pack, a neutral and a color from Michelle who had some left over so I would end up with 31 little hourglass units.

As stated in the video above - yes. There is bias on all 4 outside edges.  But that doesn't bother me.

My units also came out to an odd size (As they would) so I cut my alternate squares 2 7/8''.  It's not hard.  It's just one tick less than 3'' on the ruler.  A line is a line.


Some of these fabrics are quite blendy - especially the larger florals.  To me that gives the little quilt a soft and vintage romantic look.

The neutral and colored squares I added kept the feel and color plan of the charm pack.


It's blendy, but cute!

One of the things I really don't like with sewing from charms is that there are too many repeats of the same fabric in different colors.  Same print in 4 colorways.  I just have a hard time with that, it's too matchy for me. But this turned out cute.


Two simple borders and it's done.

I chose a brown from the stash and and cut it at 1 1/2'' for the inner border.  The outer green border I had just enough of and cut it to 3 1/2'' strips.

The top measures something close to 20'' X 25''.

It feels like spring!  And I'm so glad I jumped into this challenge.

Because it was definitely not a springy day.


Ice, ice, Baby -


The cabin is higher in elevation than the inn  - high enough for temps to drop about 5 degrees turning the rain that was falling at the inn into ice at home.  YUCK!


All of these trees - coated with ice.

Temps warmed up a bit by bedtime and this morning the ice is gone.

However - welcome to the season of mud.

So here we are at the weekend - challenge project completed up to top status.

Could there be machine quilting up on deck for today? Could be - it won't take long.

And there are still 8 blocks left to finish on my Ladder Star project.  I'll get back to that one.

How about you? Any plans for this weekend?


Quiltville Quote of the Day -

Vintage quilt found in North Carolina.

Encourage your creativity. Feed your imagination.
Lift your heart.

Listen to your inner voice.
Do what brings you joy!
Do it TODAY.

Have a marvelous weekend, everyone!


 

16 comments:

Laurie Pillers said...

Thanks for the great tip on sewing squares into hourglass units!

Anonymous said...

Oh Bonnie what a great addition the little challenge would be to your Quilters Hall of Fame display. I would love to see it in person as well as many other Quilters. You so inspire all Quilters world wide. I have stayed at Quiltville and had a wonderful time @

Anonymous said...

Now I know what to do with 2 mini charm packs I bought a few months ago. Thanks for inspiring me.

Quilter Kathy said...

Such a fun technique... I want to run to my sewing room to try it!

Gena in Dallas said...

Such a fun challenge project. As always, your video is awesome. I have a question about your machine in the video. Is the machine automatically cutting the beginning and ending threads? If so, what machines do that? All of my machines are very old and don't have that feature.

Anonymous said...

Those look easy enough! Thanks for the video tutorial. Love your charm quilt

Amy in NJ

patti in florida said...

thanks for the tip. i've been wanting to do that but didn't know about the 1/4" seam on each side first. you've saved me from myself. ha patti in florida

Ginny A said...

I really enjoyed the YT tutorial on hourglass units from mini charms. Adapting to any size square open up some great possibilities! We woke up to several inches of snow (!) this morning and it is still coming down. All of our budding plants are not going to like this, at all. I am making a set of round blue crumb potholders for my sister's travel trailer. Airstream Blue was the request. Tire tread binding for the win!

sam said...

Great tip for hour glass units. Thanks you.

Brenda Hughes said...

I enjoy your short videos. Reminds me of quilt cam. I do go back and watch them at times. Thanks for all you do in sharing your life and quilting knowledge with all of us.

Debcal1946 said...

Thanks for the shortcut on doing hourglass blocks. Very handy!

Grandma Kathy Quilts said...

So love your quilt videos!

Anonymous said...

Love seeing the fireplace going! That’s my spot when I come to quiltville, so cozy, however we don’t need the fireplace during the summer!

Anonymous said...

Reading your daily blog is such a joy.Kathy Souza

RuthW in MD said...

Google your question! There are NEW machines that cut thread!

Anonymous said...

Moda has a fun bag called Nantucket Pouch which is a free download. It uses exactly one mini charm pack (if you use two of the charms for the zipper tabs). It also takes a lining (which fits in a fat quarter).

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