What can I do with a charm??

Last weekend saw a double whammy of Doughty’s Roadshows, and I can safely say, fun was had by all!! This was their first visit to my local quilt group, The Village Quilters in Middlesbrough, and I think my fellow quilters were knocked out by the amount and choice of fabric that Doughty’s bring with them! Rest assured, Doughty's will be back next year for all you fabric addicts who were unable to make it. I’d also like to say a huge thank you to those lovelies from my group who helped so much, bought loads and were just a joy to work with! 

Meanwhile, back at Sewmotion, I’ve just taken delivery of some real beauties from Riley Blake’s Backyard Roses. As you may know by now, rather than buying full ranges, I buy a selection from a collection, mix them with some co-ordinating solids or blenders, and then make them up into pre-cut strip sets, FQ bundles and charm packs. I then go on to design quilts for patterns and pre-cut quilt kits using these sets – this is the dream bit of my work… but leaves me ever so busy!!

Well, as you can imagine, I couldn’t wait to get stuck into these gems, and soon decided to use this charm pack to make a larger version of my Square Dance quilt for a new kit. I do love this disappearing four-patch block and enjoyed a mammoth day yesterday sewing, cutting and resewing to my heart’s content. I now can’t wait to get them all sewn up and bordered…

Then my mind started wandering… we all know how versatile the jelly roll/stripper set is, but what else can be done with a 5” charm square? Well, quite a lot actually… 

You could start off with some simple snowballing, such as my Snowballs In Spring pattern, or what about this cute Road To Tennessee block – this tutorial by Andie Johnson Sews is excellent, and shows you the different effects simple variations can create.

Or maybe just go for the half snowball with this gorgeous Charming Stars pattern from Moda BakeShop - as ever this is a great tutorial with lots of pics. 

Then there's always the half-square triangle (HSTs) - this Fresh Diamonds quilt by Samelia's Mum is beautiful, clever placement creates such a pretty design.

Then there's the disappearing nine-patch block - like the four patch above, I love this method of sewing a block and then recutting it to create a whole new block. This pattern tutorial, complete with a great little movie, from Sewn Up is fantastic, just imagine those blocks in solids, or even tones of the same colour... 

Finally, you could go really simple and just use the squares with sashing, for this Contact Print Pillow Amanda of Crazy Mom Quilts has quartered the charm squares and added a simple white that makes those scrappy squares just pop! I would love to make a whole quilt like this, maybe with my Backyard Roses... mmmm....

I would like to thank these very generous quilters who have offered these beautiful patterns for free - please go and explore their blogs and say hello.

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