Simply Charmed

I took a few days 'away' (just down the hall and at 2am-ish) and threw together a quilt top sans borders. The Simply Charmed pattern shown above was an excellent one to use on a layer cake that I had of Moda's Perennials by Kansas Troubles. I had purchased the Layer Cake to make a sample for the quilt shop and was not in love with the fabrics, although by no means ugly. The sample never materialized (ha, ha...materialized) so naturally, I had to come up with a use for it. I found a bunch of yardage in my stash of a maroon on white print that I had purchased from JoAnn Stores years ago, and had no plan for it. This means that I was able to make a stash quilt!

I buy patterns, and sometimes I wonder why. I have to affirm that it is to give the pattern maker financial credit for the design. I almost never follow the directions given, whether I use a different technique, or change size of quilt, or even quilt blocks, I am always changing them up. Have I ever followed a pattern exactly? I would have to think on that. This one was a perfect example of me not following directions. (This can, of course, get you in loads of trouble every now and then, but when you screw things up as often as I do, it is much easier to take in stride.) In the instructions, you take your charm piece, then add your sashing and cornerstone piece to make each individual block. Well, this is what I did....

I started by making an uneven nine-patch putting one charm in each corner, sashing fabric in the 'north, south, east, west' areas, and finally the cornerstone fabric in the center. None of my fabrics were directional other than the sashing, so it was easy. If you had directional charms, you would just have to pay attention when placing those before sewing.

Then I just cut the piece down the exact middle both ways and ended up with four blocks done at once. This made the quilt top go together super fast. I still have not put the borders on, but that is one of my things to cross off the old list for the month. I have been able to plug along on projects at a slow, but regular pace. I think it is near time to step up the game a little and show that darn machine how its done! Here is a little sample of how the quilt top will look, better pictures to come:

Talk to y'all later! Gotta change a diaper...again.