Magic Charm Quilt

 

No quilts for ages, and then two completed within weeks of each other.  I had a charm pack I had no idea what to do with, until I found the Magic Charm Quilt Pattern by Hello Melly Designs.  A little bit of background and accent from the usual shop and I had everything I needed to put the top together last year.

At one point I found that the light blue background would also be great for the one block wonder I made last year, so I cut out everything I needed for this quilt so the remaining fabric could be used in the other one, in the inner border and maybe the back. 

With blocks on point, the quilt was quite fun to put together, though I remember having the blocks all laid out on the floor presented a problem - I'd wake up the next morning and the foster cat had rearranged them into his preferred setting.  Eventually though, the quilt top had the borders on, and it was put in the cupboard with the other unfinished projects.

I really wanted to do some edge to edge allover quilting on this, but it just seemed too hard for a quilt of this size using the sewing machine I have.  In the end I decided to turn a small flower motif I'd practiced before, into a larger, allover freestyle FMQ design.  And it didn't really take that long to do.  But then I needed to put it away until I could figure out what to do about the borders - I just knew I wanted something different in those sections.  I got some inspiration from some quilting books grandma gave me for Christmas, and did a large zigzag which made the on-point blocks project into the border, and the filled in the edges with back and forth wiggly lines.  As expected, I ran out of thread while doing the border (200m spools are just not enough for the quilting I do, but that is all a particular shop had at the time), but I had plenty of a very similar shade.  I can see the colour change in the border, but I don't imagine many other people will see it, as it is so slight.  And I wasn't going to start hunting down that particular shade like I had to with the last quilt.   


I auditioned a few things at home for the binding, but nothing was quite right or big enough. I was thinking of something dark purple, until I spotted the same fabric that I'd used in the border.  That'll do, and no more decisions required.

Took advantage of a sunny winter day to take some photos.  I am sure people wonder what I am doing.  But I just don't have anywhere at home to take a nice photo, and I am tired of taking pictures of them on the floor in the one spot that is big enough to spread them out.

The next quilt top made out of a half jelly roll is ready to go, and I've even figured out how I want to quilt the main portion already.  Once I figure out the rest of it I'll get started.


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