One of the most frequent questions we are asked in the shop (after 'do we do alterations') is 'How big would a quilt be made with a Moda Charm Pack?' So having been asked this very question a number of times in recent weeks, I thought it would be useful to make one up...there's nothing better than actually seeing the finished article, rather than being shown the measurements...don't you think!
A Moda Charm Pack is made up of a selection of 42 squares from a collection, each one measuring 5".
I chose a Poetry Charm Pack for my quilt and having decided to keep this really simple I left the squares as is and laid them out in 7 rows, with 6 squares per row. This part probably took me longer than it actually did to sew them together!
I chain pieced the squares, using a 1/4" seam allowance and followed the same method as I used for the bag front in my Patchwork Tote Bag Tutorial, which you can find HERE........there are lots of photo's so if you're a beginner it's worth a look. As usual I had Aurifil 50wt in my machine.
For your information, if you decided to stop at that, once bound this portion of the quilt would measure 27" x 31 1/2" aprox. Obviously you could change the layout to suit your project..... you may for example want to make a table topper.
As you can see, I decided to add a border to my quilt. I chose a pretty pink tone on tone floral from the Poetry collection and from this I cut four 5" strips across the full width of fabric. If you're purchasing the fabric for the border, you would need to add 3/4's metre (3 units) to your basket....sorry 1/2 metre is not quite enough, but you will have leftovers for another project. Alternatively you could cut the border slightly smaller if you wanted to get it out of 1/2 metre.
I then added the side borders first, cutting away the excess fabric and then the top and bottom borders.
I then layered up the quilt with my wadding...I used 100% cotton wadding and for the backing I used a pretty pink polka dot again from the Poetry collection, 125cm (5 units) is sufficient. I spray basted on this occasion, but you can read more about this part of the process HERE. I decided to hand quilt mine using Aurifil 12 wt ..... and chose a simple crosshatch design across the charm squares and then straight lines spaced at 1/2" intervals around the border. I marked all of the lines using my trusty Clover Hera marker...one of my favourite quilty tools!
I'll let you in to a little secret, the quilt went perfectly with my Made for Baby blog tour post make (you can read it HERE) ....however look very closely and you'll see that some very strategic photo's were taken as I hadn't actually sewn on the binding..tee hee!!
When I eventually got around to stitching the binding, I used a pretty floral stripe, again from the Poetry collection. I cut four 2 1/2" strips full width of fabric. If you're purchasing fabric, you will need to purchase 1/2 metre of fabric (2 units) but you will have leftovers. Alternatively, cut them at 2 1/4" and that way you'll get them out of a long quarter*.
* A little happy note......... as standard when 1 unit is added to your basket we will always send 1 Fat Quarter (FQ) . We are however quite happy to send a Long Quarter (LQ) BUT you must add a note in the Special Instructions section at checkout to let us know that this is what you would like.
I added the binding following my usual method, which you can find step step instructions for HERE.
I thought you may like to see the back of the quilt with all my hand stitches (ignore the crease down the centre fold...it's been folded patiently waiting for me to write this post!)........
Obviously I couldn't stop at just one Charm Square quilt, so I decided to make another.......
.....but more about that another day!
If you do make the quilt, please do send us a picture mum and I would love to see or alternatively if you're sharing on social media, please do use the #alittlehappytutorial.
See you again soon with pictures of my next Charm Pack Quilt....oh and in case you were wondering..... NO we do not do alterations...I can't think of anything worse!
Happy Stitches!
