5" Charms Scrappy Tutorial

5" Charms Scrappy

I did several of these quilts years ago, and recently was reminded of the technique, so I'm offering you a quick tutorial on how to make them. It's very simple, and you can use up a bunch of those 5" charms you've been saving! You can do this totally scrappy, or control your color-way if you prefer. (For example, use various purple charms.) Feel free to share a link to this page with your friends!

First, decide what fabric you'll be using for your sashings. Cut a strip width-of-fabric X 8-1/2", then cut 2" strips from that.

Gather up your 5" charms, and cut them in half diagonally.

Place one half face down on the sashing piece, centering it so that the same amount extends on either end. Stitch 1/4" from edge. I used white thread so that you could see it clearly, but I would use a thread that matches the sashing as a rule.

Press away from the sashing.

Lay the second half of the charm face down on the opposite edge, and stitch it the same way.

Lay a square-up type ruler on the unit, using the 45 degree line SMACK IN THE CENTER of your sashing, corner to corner. Trim to square it up to 5-1/2" square.

This is what a trimmed unit should look like.

Four units together form an "X" and makes this a 10-1/2" unfinished block. Just sew your blocks into rows of whatever size you want your quilt to be. SO EASY!!!

Happy Quilting!

Jean MaDan

This is my finished quilt! Below is the other side.... 

I did this side with scrappy stars... I like the way this reversible quilt turned out!!

A lighter version made by Candace:

This is the quilt CANDACE WRAGG made using my tutorial! Good job, Candace!

Certainly Stars!

Since my "Bonus Bears" is on the longarm now, I decided to start a new project. This time I thought I'd better draw it up in EQ BEFORE I started sewing, to help me keep track of where I wanted to go. So, I got my pattern all designed and plan to start making it tomorrow!

Certainly Stars!

56" x 66"

Do it totally scrappy, or control your colorway... either way, these look gorgeous! I think it would look great with a black or colored background, too!



I was right! Here's my completed Certainly Stars with black background, and I really like it!

Bonus Bears

Bonus Bears

I decided to use up about 480 bonus 1-3/4" HSTs in brown and cream to make a new quilt. And yes, it does require a lot of additional background and border fabric to DO, but if you were doing a quilt WITHOUT those bonus HSTs it would take even more, not to mention all that wasted fabric! *grin* It's going to make a great Christmas gift to a guy in my family! (Always thinking ahead on that sort of thing!) Anyway, I'm really happy with the results.

Happy Quilting!
Jean MaDan

Jean's Choice

A couple of weeks ago I posted my new Tumbling Blocks quilt. When I made that, I ended up with over 1000 bonus HSTs. I was able to incorporate ALL of the BLUE ones in this quilt. I was calling this block "Sister's Choice", but I guess I was doing a variation... so we'll just call it "Jean's Choice" instead. LOL!

JEAN'S CHOICE

Scrappy Sensation

Scrappy Sensation 

Finished size 68" x 80"



Churn Dash Chains Free Tutorial

Several people have asked for details about the Churn Dash Chains quilt, and since it's fairly simple, I thought I'd share it here.
First, gather all your 1-3/4" bonus HSTs you've been saving! One side should be WOW or a consistant background color you like. The rest of the colors should be as varied as possible if you're going scrappy.

Next, cut 1-3/4" square of the background.

Now you need to make your divider strips. Cut from background and a scrappy print, rectangles measuring 1-3/4" x 1-1/8", and sew together as shown: (make 4)

Now put  your little parts together to make a churn dash block:

Your unfinished churn dash size should measure about 4-1/4" (finished size 3-3/4")

Your nine patch blocks will consist of 5 churn dash, and 4 background squares. You will make 7 of those. They should measure 11-3/4" unfinished size.

Your border blocks will consist of 3 churn dash, 1 background square, and one background rectangle that is cut at 4-1/4" x 11-3/4" You will make 10 of those.

Cut 18 background squares measuring 11-3/4" x 11-3/4", and assemble as shown below:

Happy Quilting!
Jean MaDan

Woven Fat Quarter Strips

Woven Fat Quarter Strips

I recently saw a GORGEOUS quilt on one of the groups, done with woven strips of 30s type fabrics. I don't really carry those fabrics in my stash, so I decided to see if it could be done using a wide variety of Fat Quarters from my stash. And MOST of the colors COULD! So I worked out a pattern to do it that way, and got started.

(My pattern gives instructions for 3 different size quilts.)

This is the one Wanda made using my pattern! Very nice!!

Happy Quilting!
Jean MaDan