Just One Charm Pack Quilts: Medallion Quilt

Hello, there—and welcome to my stop on the Just One Charm Pack Quilts blog hop! : )

If you’re new around here, I’m Michelle, a quilt maker and independent pattern designer based in Massachusetts. If you’ve been here a while, you know I’ve made my fair share of Cheryl Brickey’s patterns, so when she invited me to make a quilt from her latest book, Just One Charm Pack Quilts, I jumped at the chance!

My initial run-through of the book did not disappoint. Cheryl challenged herself to design a series of projects that all require a single charm pack, a secondary fabric, and a background fabric. What results is a lovely collection of wall hangings, baby quilts, and small throws.

I fell hard for the Medallion design but didn’t have a charm pack I wanted to use to make my own version. (It’s not that I didn’t have a charm pack—or 12—for the endeavor; I just didn’t feel like breaking into one!) Instead, I used a fat quarter bundle of Sink or Swim, by Rae Ritchie for Dear Stella, to create my own charm squares.

That’s what so nice about this book: It’s versatile. Cheryl offers advice for you no matter your situation. Don’t have a charm pack in your stash, have a partial set on hand, or feeling too stubborn to open one up (HA!)? No problem.

If you’re like me—making a charm pack quilt from a fat quarter bundle—and want to make a bigger project, many of the designs are easily enlarged by sewing more blocks. If I had more of that swirly brown fabric from Kimberbell, I would have sewn another border or two, even though it would have necessitated doing a little math to accommodate the medallion format.

I did, however, have plenty of Sink and Swim, so I used up as much of it as I could. The pieced backing and binding is all from that collection.

I really enjoyed my first go with Just One Charm Pack Quilts. From my perspective, the book’s scope is larger than other books that provide precut-friendly patterns. For me, a diehard stasher, Cheryl’s designs get me to use what I already have on hand, which means I get to the sewing part faster, without placing a fabric order or swinging by my local quilt shop. Need a baby quilt, like, now? Want to start a new project tonight? This book will help you do it!

I have a few more things to say about this quilt—about the quilting, the finishing, and the extra-special recipient. If you want to learn more, stop by Friday, July 16, for the rest of the details and for the week’s Beauties Pageant. : )

For more on Just One Charm Pack Quilts, head to Cheryl’s blog, Meadow Mist Designs.

For more projects I’ve made from Cheryl’s patterns and her previous book, Modern Plus Sign Quilts, with Paige Alexander, read these posts:

* Sneaky, Sneaky, Sneaky Me!

* Rick Rack Runner

* Déjà vu Baby Quilt

* Merry Christmas to Me 

* Quilting By Check

* A PB&J Finish

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She's Here! / Beauties Pageant 136

For a long time, the running joke at my house was that my tombstone would read: Michelle Cain / 1974-20XX / She did dishes. (For real. Just ask my husband.) I’m pretty sure something like this would be more appropriate now: Michelle Cain / 1974-2021 / Death by puppy!

Friends, Gracie has arrived, and she’s kicking my butt! I mean, she’s the softest and cutest thing you’ve ever seen. She weighed in at 10 pounds yesterday, and most of it is floof. And she’s super sweet and cuddly—way more relaxed than her older sister ever was. But the middle-of-the-night potty runs and the constant shenanigans ... I am sleep deprived and barely functioning.

My ability to string words together will cease any second now, so let me give you the high-level synopsis: Everyone is doing well. Rose was stressed at first but rallied a lot faster than we thought she would. The girls play often and well together—if you consider rolling around on the floor and biting each other and tackling each other playing well together.

All this puppiness is temporary. We’re trying to enjoy it while it lasts. : )

 

 

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• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

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Glint and Glimmer / Beauties Pageant 135

In between moments of drizzle yesterday, I managed to get some help for a quick photo shoot. I’m calling this lovely—albeit currently wrinkly—finish Glint and Glimmer.

You might recall that this was a neglected WIP until recently, when I decided to use a submission deadline from Curated Quilts to get myself in gear and finish it. For the record, I did submit it to the gallery in the magazine’s upcoming polygon issue, but it was not accepted. This was no surprise. In my opinion, Curated Quilts has an improv vibe and likes quilts accompanied by interesting backstories, and Glint and Glimmer fits into neither of those categories. It was worth a shot, though, and the opportunity helped me wrap up this project!

As you can see from the pics, I went along with my plan to quilt this top with 12 weight Aurifil thread. Some of the quilting was done by machine; some was done by hand. I gave each color of gemstone its own unique quilting treatment and then quilted along an inner hexagon here and there where I thought it was needed.

At 37 inches by 48 inches, the final product ended up being smaller than most of my quilts. I could have kept piecing, but I really thought this hexagon experiment had succeeded and I was satisfied with the results.

For the first time, I also finished the binding with chunky hand stitching. I will definitely be doing that again in the future!

This post would not be complete without the picture below, a shot of Glint and Glimmer alongside the resident photo bomber here at From Bolt to Beauty world headquarters, Rose. If you read last week’s post, you know that Rose is getting a baby sister on Saturday. For all you wacky dog lovers out there, I’ll be posting puppy pics in the stories on my Instagram feed and in the grid on Rose’s Instagram feed—you know, just in case you can’t wait until next week’s blog post to see the newcomer! : )

(What’s that you say? You didn’t know Rose has her own IG account? Yes, we’re that kind of dog owners—HA!)

Related links:

* Returning to My Ombre Hexagons blog post

* Machine-Sewing with 12 Weight Thread blog post

* How I Machine-Piece Hexagons tutorial

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The pageant rules are simple:

• Post your finish in the linky tool. (No links to your own giveaway or linky, please!)
• Point your readers back here with a text link or use the button above.
• Visit and comment on other participants’ finishes.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter