Charming Flowers

This is Charming Flowers, a design by Konda Luckau of Moose on the Porch blog. I loved making this, very easy pattern to follow. I went ahead and made 5 rows instead of 4 because I loved the look and I had already made the blocks. The pattern calls for 6.

I wrote of adding the flange to provide a break between my border choices and I loved how it came out. However, I didn't think about how it would affect my quilting. I had trouble with the flange folding back on itself as I moved from one direction to another. Lesson learned: stay away from flanges if you're going to quilt it on a longarm or don't use an allover design. Or I could have basted it down too.

I also did the binding by machine instead of sewing it on the back by hand since I ran out of time. It was my first time of trying this on a whole quilt and for the most part I was pleased. This is something I may do again in the future and with more practice I should improve. There is something relaxing about doing the binding by hand but in a pinch, machine is definitely the way to go.

I wrote on the quilt back for the label and I'm not sure I'd go this route again. After I washed the quilt I saw the writing had faded (I used the micron pigma pen). It might have been better with a lighter back though.

I'm pretty pleased with the quilt, especially since it took me just a little over a week from start to finish. The pattern is one I would definitely recommend too. This quilt turned into another one where I had a hard time giving it up. But, I wanted our youth pastor and his wife to have something special for their first baby and I got to do something I loved making it. Win win all around!!

Loving Pink and Green

I had never been a pink kind of gal but lately I've been really drawn to it. Perhaps it's all those years of raising 2 boys that has had me thinking girly things in the past few years. I'm going to a baby shower (a girl to quilt for....yay!!) on Sunday and I'm racing to get this project done.

This is a quilt from one of Konda Luckau's (her link is the Moose on the Porch blog on my sidebar) books in the Simply Charming line. Her books feature projects using charm squares, this pattern is called Charming Flowers. She also has information if you don't have charm squares and want to use your yardage. I had a bit of pink and green yardage/fat quarters so I decided to use them in the project. The book I have is a combination of 2 books, called "Simply Charming Collection". Lots of great patterns!

The pattern calls for 24 blocks in a 4x6 grid but I made 20 (I know, I need a new photo) thinking to put it in a 4x5 grid. That still makes for a good sized quilt (the original finishes at 52 1/2 x 70 1/2) so I may cut it back to 3x4 or 4x4 which would make it that much faster to finish. As a baby quilt, the smaller size would be more portable too. It's been a very easy project to work on.

What's a quilt without issues though? Mine is in color. I purchased the border fabric to tie my pinks together and then I went and purchased the inner border fabric (which I fell in love with while shop hopping). However when I put them together I realized I had forgotten about scale and pattern. The 2 together didn't look right to my eye so I knew I had to do something. Also....when I put those 2 blocks up on my design wall, the green I used for the centers read as too green. Normally I would have gone out and bought some more fabric to fix both issues but then I decided to try a flange between the green and pink border and I think I found a solution that works. This is supposed to be a scrap quilt after all! As I get it together I'll post more photos. In the meantime I'll be spending my time rushing to get this done by Sunday afternoon!