Charm Pack Cherry - a fun & quick quilt top!

You know when you see a new fabric range and you just have to have it.  You try and ignore it, given the fact that you already have 2 unopened FQ bundles sitting on the shelf, but eventually you can't help it, you visit every online shop you know of, wander around etsy for a bit and even check out ebay to see if the shipping charges are any better! 

Well that was me with Noteworthy by Sweetwater for Moda.  The moment I saw it I knew I was going to end up buying it.  Feeling totally guilty, I did avoid the FQB (see 2 on hand above!) but I did buy 2 charm packs, a layer cake and a jelly roll!

So they have been sitting in my stash for a while now.  I do have plans for the layer cake and the jelly roll (another Strip & Flip quilt and Anita Grossman Soloman's Arrowhead Block quilt) but I had nothing in mind for the charm packs until I saw the free pattern from Fat Quartershop Charm Pack Cherry.  There is even a you tube video that walks you through the process.  It's made up of 9 patches which when chain pieced go together very quickly.

You make 8 of them starting with solid, print, solid and the other 8 print, solid, print.  I had a charm pack of Moda Bella Solids in neutral shades.  The colours varied from cream to beige and I thought it would mix in well with Noteworthy and instead of using all the one solid colour it could be interesting variation.  The pattern called for 2 charm packs of prints and 2 of solids so only having 1 solid on hand I cut up some yardage of Essex linen in natural and a cream tone on tone in 5" squares to get enough for the 16 blocks. 

The free instructions are really easy to follow and even give recommendations for pressing to make matching seams really easy.  The only difficulty I had in the piecing was down to me and my seam allowance.  I got a new machine for Christmas, a Pfaff Passport which is much smaller and lighter than my Husqvarna Viking.  I intend to bring it to sewing nights and classes that I hope to take this year.  I did get a 1/4" foot with it and decided to try the new machine with this project to get a bit more used to it.  I snapped on the 1/4" foot without testing it and it is not 1/4"!

It's leaving me the teeniest bit short so I need to play with it and probably move the needle to find the sweet spot.  Of course I should have done this before launching into a project but at least with this pattern consistency is more important that exact measurements.  I'm not making blocks for Bees or swaps, so I can live with a smaller dimension.  Once I noticed I was coming up short I kept on going without changing anything to ensure the blocks were consistent and would nest together ok.

The pattern calls for the blocks to be cut in half and gives dimensions.  As mine were slightly off I folded the blocks in half to find the centre line and cut along that.  Re-arranging the cut pieces as below gives the 2 blocks that make up the rest of the pattern.

 

So here they are up on the design wall ready to be sewn together.  I really like the scattered nature of this quilt and am delighted with the colour mix between pattern and print.  If you have 2 charm packs, forgotten about in your stash or just waiting for the right project, check out the free pattern.  It's a quick, fun pattern to make.  I've really enjoyed it and am thinking of stippling it all over in the quilting stage to make it nice and wrinkly!

 

(Oh and in case you are wondering my makeshift design wall is propped up at the moment on the dogs travel crate!)


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