We had been gifted boxes and boxes of charm packs by a former guild member. My co chair Katrina came up with a challenge for our committee members. Take charm packs and make quilt tops to share at the September guild meeting, using any pattern you like and adding any other fabrics you like. She thought it might inspire other guild members to look at making similar quilt tops.
When she asked the committee members if they wanted to participate, charm packs where flying every which way as the enthusiastic quilters grabbed them up. There were slim pickins when I got to the pile but I ended up with two identical charm packs and another grouping of similar to each other charm packs.
Here's a closeup of the quilt and some of the leftover fabrics from the pack. If you look at the two charms on the bottom left of the photo you can see there were differences in dye lots between the two packs. You can also see better in this photo how the black patterned fabrics show up against the black background.
Apart from the aqua, the colours in the packs are not my usual, so it took me while to figure out what to pair them with. Our donation quilts work best if they have some bright colour and contrast. Wendy suggested the black background and together we chose the coral to add that pop of colour.
The pattern is called Modern Basic and it is from the book
Charm School by Vanessa Goerzten of Lella Boutique. This is a great book if you are looking for quick makes for donation quilts as the patterns come together quickly. The only draw back is that many of the patterns require multiples of the same charm pack for the designs to work. The designs are not limited to charm packs however as there are also directions for making the quilts from fat quarters. Cyndy and Wendy have each made different patterns from the book as well.
In the book this pattern required 3 charm packs plus background and contrast fabric (in my case coral). It makes a 81" by 81" quilt. I cut it down to 54" by 67" which is the size of our donation quilts and managed to use 2 charm packs because there where repeats in each pack. There are quite a few leftovers a few of which I can add to these two packs
Because there are no duplicates here I won't be able to use the same book but I do have an idea of what I would like to do. It will require a lot of additional 5" squares that can play happily with these. I may just have enough in my sewing room. But that is a quilt for another day. I'm linking this post with Let's Bee Social , with Finished or Not Friday and with Brag About Your Beauties. Oh and I almost forgot. Making this quilt top was my OMG for July so I'll be linking to the One Monthly Goal linkup as well.
18 comments:
Wow, this is stunning Lisa. That dark background creates such a dramatic look. Love this - Hope you are doing well and enjoying summer!!
Wonderful quilt, fun to make with a charm pack!
The dark background and the coral are a perfect pairing for the charm packs! We sometimes have to have one small element to inspire what we otherwise might not be inspired by...you did a fantastic job meeting the challenge!
Great finish! I see different things pop out as I look, then look again. I have several charm packs that I would like to use.
Very striking and dynamic! The blue and coral brighten up the taupes and make the whole thing look great. Will you quilt it yourself?
Nice! I love simple summer sewing and your charm quilt looks great.
I love that book -- Charm School! She has a jelly roll book coming out in the fall -- Jelly Filled. Great job and love the added coral!
Well, for slim pickins you really made a pretty quilt! I love the pops of coral with the dark blue. I've always wondered about dye lots in the pre-cuts, and kind of watch for them. Those two really show the difference! I'm going to tuck that challenge idea away for our quilt group.
You did a great job with the charm squares!
Great job putting those two charm packs to good use! I've seen my share of dye-lot discrepancies over the years, but the difference between those two packs was astounding.
It is a lovely quilt top and nice that you could complete it in one month!
I really like the idea of simple quilts once in a while. It is just relaxing not to have to think too much! You did great pairing it up to make a fun quilt.
The coral certainly makes it go "pop". Great design.
Well done. This is a great quilt.
I love the quilt layout that you picked for your charm packs. And the coral really adds that lovely color punch. Enjoy your "finish" and the meeting of the OMG :) xo Melanie
www.mellmeyer.de
You make me want to pull out my charm packs and get sewing!
That bloke Slim Pickins did very well. I would use him again Lisa
The quilt came out beautiful! Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish.
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