Charming Saturday - Update June 1

Sometimes you just want to sew, you don't want to think, you just want to sew, no measuring, no dividing, no multiplying, you just want to hear that hum of your machine and drift into that zen place.  I have felt that way this week.  It's the 7th anniversary of my mother's passing this week, and the 16th anniversary of my grandmother's passing.  So, I am in a reflective mood and don't really want to spend too much time thinking through the process, I just want that lovely feeling of accomplishment and that meditative quality that quilting gives me, elevating me to a higher place.

Update:  Quilt top is finished, waiting for borders, backing, batting and binding...

This project is providing that calm.  I like to get up in the mornings before work and turn on our tv, tune into the internet and watch quilting videos.  This little quilt pattern was demo'd by Missouri Star Quilt Company and I am including the video here for you to enjoy.  You will see in a heartbeat, how very simple this pattern is.  



I am using 4 charm packs and making a queen size quilt, border fabric will come later as they have not yet released the yardage for these charms.  It should be available by the end of this month.
Didn't have a jelly roll, but I did have 4 yards of a lovely Moda fabric Indigo Crossing by Polly Minick & Lauri Simpson, which I cut into 2 1/2 inch strips.

You start a strip in your machine and just place the charms, butting them right up to each other and sew...

Don't stop between strips, just add another strip under your presser foot and keep going until you have stitched every charm.  Takes about 5 strips/42 charms for this first go around.

Then carefully cut them apart and take them to your ironing board.

give a quick press to set your thread and then I finger press open before pressing with the iron to get a fully open seam.

Should look like this and when you are all done, you will have a nice stack like below.

Start another 2 1/2 inch strip in your machine and just start sewing again, just like you did before.  You'll have a nice pile like below when you are done.

Again, trim them apart carefully and press them open as before and you should have a block like below.

Now the fun begins, you have a great stack to play with.  In the video, she shows you how to place your squares to get the effect of the "falling" charms.  It's a quick and fabulous way to showcase a fabric that you love.

Below is 1/4 of the quilt completed.  It will be fun to decide what the border, backing and binding fabrics will be when the time comes

Enjoy your charming Saturday!  I'm off to my machine now.