Charmed, I'm Sure: Precut Patterns to Steal Your Heart

Charm packs - aka 5" squares - are my favorite way to buy fabric! One charm pack plus yardage and/or borders is the perfect size for a baby quilt. And since most fabric designers use common motifs and colors in their lines, it's easy to make a quilt look coordinated scrappy by mixing a few different charm packs together for a bigger quilt.

Charming Flying Geese Quilt Pattern by KMQ

KATIE MAE QUILTS

​My charm pack patterns include:

  • Charm Dash

  • Charming Flying Geese

  • Stars Over the Ocean

  • Prismatic Butterflies

  • Four Patch Heart

  • Swishy Sashing

  • Phenomenal Pinwheels (technically a layer cake pattern but can be done with at least two identical charm packs)

  • Friendship Chain (with three identical charm packs OR go scrappy)

Swishy Sashing Quilt Pattern by KMQ

I told you I liked charm packs! In fact, I just put them into a category on Payhip and made them 25% off. (No code needed, this month only!)

Photo Courtesy of Christa Watson / Christa Quilts

BLOCK CHAIN

Christa Quilts' Block Chain - like Swishy Sashing, it’s a great way to highlight your favorite prints from a beloved charm pack.

Photo Courtesy of Cheryl Brickey / Meadow Mist Designs

JUST ONE/TWO CHARM PACK(S)

Cheryl Brickey (Meadow Mist Designs) wrote the best books, Just One Charm Pack and Just Two Charm Packs. My favorite quilt ever, that’s been on my to-make list for…well, since the book was released, is Somerville Circle. Fun fact: Cheryl and I grew up one town away in New Jersey and the Somerville Circle is a real (dangerous when we were teenagers driving it) traffic pattern.

Photo Courtesy of Ann Skaehill / Crafty Moose Quilts

OH RYAN

​Oh Ryan by Crafty Moose - a sawtooth star! ♥ This coloring is my favorite - it feels so scrappy and cheerful. Maybe I need to make something with jewel tones to scratch that itch. Something like…Oh! Ryan!

SHORTCUT QUILTS

Fat Quarter Shop's Shortcut Quilts are always fun, fast, and free! I've made Charm Pack Crispies - it’s a slice and rearrange block, and makes a nifty looking pattern. I used two different Sherri & Chelsi fabric lines to make it look a little bit more scrappy.

OH MY STARS

Pat Sloan's Oh My Stars is super easy to make, and to expand. My Quilts of Valor version just uses more charms and more stars. You can put the stars anywhere and use as many as you have background fabric for!

Photo Courtesy of Henry Glass Fabrics

5 AND DIME

Henry Glass Fabrics has a line of patterns called “I've Got Hue, Babe” 5 and Dime Patterns, which are designed to go with their I've Got Hue precuts, obviously. I’m a fan just from the name pun.

Photo Courtesy of Henry Glass Fabrics

And of course, if you need MORE charm packs (who doesn't?) I'd be honored if you shopped my sponsors!

ROUND UP PREVIEWS

This themed round up was sent to my newsletter subscribers last month. Newsletter subscribers get a fresh themed round up in every monthly newsletter, so if you want to read the next one before it makes it to the blog, go ahead and subscribe!

SEE ALSO

Too Charming to Resist: Precut Quilts to Fall in Love With

AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER

This post contains affiliate links. I might receive commissions if you click on my links and make purchases, at no extra cost to you. However, please know this does not impact my recommendations - I only recommend products and shops that I use myself.

put a pin in it

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BOMs Away - QOVF

This month, instead of working on one block, multiple times, I decided to make the center block for the Connecting Threads’ Eventide Block of the Month. Or, in other words - multiple pieces, one block.

EVENTIDE BOM

Honestly, there aren't that many different units in the center block! To make it a bit easier, I cut each set from the same Connecting Threads fabrics - all the dark blue is the leftover from the Magnificent Mystery, all the lighter beige is Cobblestone backing scraps, etc.

I realllllllllly wanted to use the fireworks from Summer Jubilee, the RWB summer line from two (three?) years ago, in the center of the center, but my only remaining scrap was too small. I ended up using a chunk from Hometown Americana that doesn't really read red, white, OR blue, so it's a good spot to use it.

Pattern: Eventide BOM by Connecting Threads (unavailable at the moment, but I’ll link once the stand alone pattern is release)

Fabric: Connecting Threads Quilts of Valor kit leftovers

BOMS AWAY FOR EVERYONE

BOMs Away Monday is currently being hosted on Facebook - please join and post your block of the months in the group!

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Charming Flying Geese - A Pattern Quilt

It’s time for another version of my Charming Flying Geese quilt pattern! This one is fairly different from the first two I’ve made (Option A, Option B), mostly because it swaps the charm and background fabric.

THE QUILT PATTERN

In other words, the first two quilts use the charm square as the large square in the four-at-a-time method of making flying geese, while this one uses the charm square as the small squares. It sews up much faster (since the blocks are therefore larger) but there’s a bit less layout options this way.

It does look delightfully scrappy, though, so I’m quite pleased with the outcome! Coordinated scrappy and a fast make is the best for a baby quilt.

And there are options for the layout - you can point all the geese to the left, or right, or up or down. You can pair up your colors better than I did and make it ombre-ish. You can layout it out similar to Option A, though it will look scrappier. You could lay it out in a spiral…see, options!

The flying geese are made slightly oversized and trimmed down, which makes everything neatly match up. It takes a few extra minutes, but it’s worth the effort.

THE FABRIC

The fabric is Friends of Smokey Bear by Riley Blake for the charm pack, and Texture in Cream by Sandy Gervais. The Texture is leftover from the Quilty Fun Row Along - I way overbought for that one!

Just in case you thought that my bear obsession (see: Fat Bears) was contained in Katmai NP - I love all bears. And Smokey loves me.

The backing is a blue minky from Bib & Tucker, a local sustainable resale store. As much as I love new fabric, I also like being able to purchase fabric that someone else has destashed. And it doesn’t hurt that it’s $3 a pound! (This backing cost me less than $5…until I spotted the mini charm packs at checkout.)

The binding is a nameless brown dot from my stash. Yay for using things up!

THE QUILTING

The longarming is a fun one! I asked my husband for advice about the bear paws, and he asked to see what I could do with trees. And then when he saw the pine trees, he asked if I could combine the pine trees and bear paws. Which, I can!

I offset the rows and alternated flipping one over to nest everything together. It’s not the most consistent fill for an edge-to-edge design, but I love it. It’s unique! And it looks great on the minky back!

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Lasting Liberty Part Two: Hourglass Borders

“Quilts are emblems of hope, infused with a host of meanings - some broad, national, and patriotic; other subtle, familial, and personal.” Shaw, page 1

The first real set of borders in my Lasting Liberty Medallion quilt (in honor of America’s 250th and destined to become the door prize at my guild quilt show in June) are my favorite, because they’re in honor of my own Dutch heritage.

hourglass quilt borders

The Dutch loved using hourglasses in their quilts. Like a loooooooot. Like, their medallions were just full of them. Look at all those hourglasses!

 I was pretty tempted to throw in at least two rounds in my quilt, but alas, we have a few more borders to go and I was somewhat limited in size. (No larger than, you know, the hanging sleeve I was willing to sew on.)

Instead, I went with the classic alternating light/dark set up. It turns nicely around the corners, which is always nice. Probably why it was so popular back before they had computers and Electric Quilt to plan their quilts!

HALF DROP DIAMOND QUILT BORDERS

Alternating light-dark contrast borders were becoming popular around the turn of the century, and the second border echoes the hourglasses. This border is set on point and not actually pieced like an hourglass. (It’s also exactly double the size of the hourglasses. Symmetry-ish!) It’s the best place to use a larger print - I used the large floral from Connecting Threads’ Cottage Cove fabric line.

I knew from all the inspiration quilts that I definitely wanted to use the quarter block on the edge. I struggled with getting it to line up with the previous/next borders until I tried it without spacer strips between this border and the hourglass border. THAT made everything line up perfectly! (Thank you, Electric Quilt, for making it easy to wiggle borders back and forth!)

And, this border setting allows for a special block in the corners. I chose the Sawtooth Star for this one, because…it’s my favorite and I’m in charge here!

You can see the Sawtooth Star in many of my inspiration quilts - it’s among the oldest and most popular quilt blocks. Since it’s the special block, it also got the large print floral - this time in dark blue.

And that’s borders 2-3! (I’m already standing on a small stool to take these photos. A couple more and I’ll need a ladder!)

Fabric

Cottage Cove provided by Connecting Threads

Sources

A History of Dutch Quilts, An Moonan

The Quilt: A History and Celebration of An American Art Form by Elise Schebler Roberts

American Quilts: the Democratic Art, 1780-2007 by Robert Shaw

The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort, 1750-1950 by Roderick Kiracofe

Quilts Around the World by Spike Gillespie

The History of the Patchwork Quilt by Schupppe von Gwinner

The Ultimate Quilt Finishing Guide: Batting, Backing, Binding, and 100+ Borders by Harriet Hargrave

Material Culture by Barbara Brackman

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