Just Two Charm Pack Quilts:
When my good friend Cheryl Brickey with Meadow Mist Designs told me she was releasing a new book this spring, I knew I had to support her and make a quilt from her book. That’s what good quilty friends do, right? Cheryl’s book, Just Two Charm Pack Quilts, launched in April and I couldn’t wait to pick the perfect quilt to make. I am so excited to share it with you. Keep reading to learn how I know Cheryl and to see my process making my quilt, as well as a fun giveaway!
How I Know Cheryl:
I first met Cheryl when we both participated in an event called Passport to Quilting in 2022. I was reading her emailed newsletter and realized she lived in South Carolina. At the time, I was just about to move to South Carolina and quickly I connected with her. She was so helpful in giving me insights of the area. Since then, we have become super close. We only live 45 minutes away from each other and go to lunch when we can and marco (marco polo) weekly. We even went to Quilt Con in Atlanta together this past February. The picture to the right is us at Quilt Con. She has become one of my favorite designers in the industry and someone I look up to for business and design advice. She is an EQ8 wizard, an educator, and an amazing person! I hope you take a moment to get to know Cheryl. I included her website and social links below. Show her some love for her new book.
Instagram: @meadowmistdesigns
Facebook: Meadow Mist Designs
Website: www.meadowmistdesigns.com
Blog: Click Here
To snag a copy of her new book Click Here
I thought it would be so fun to take you through my process of picking the quilt to make, the fabric, and more.
My Process:
Picking the quilt from the book:
Who knew picking a quilt to make could be so hard? They are all so pretty. I think it took me a few months to decide, but I finally settled on Taylor’s Square. I was drawn to the detail in the design and wanted to freshen up on my HST skills. I haven't made HSTs in years. Little did I know, this quilt would test my piecing accuracy skills, but also improve them. I’m so proud of my points. Love working with HSTs? Taylors Square is a must make!
Color Options/ Fabric Selection:
I have been collecting matching charm packs ever since Cheryl told me what her book was going to be about. I could no longer just buy one charm pack at a time, I had to purchase two. I told her everytime I see a charm pack, I think of her. Over the last year, I collected several charm packs of my favorite collections and that made it so difficult to narrow it down. If you give me too many options, I can't make a choice! Anyone else like that? I guess that means I’ll have to make several quilts from the book. I’m not complaining! After many countless hours, I finally decided to use the Emma collection by Sherri and Chelsi. Not only did I have two charm packs, I also had a fat quarter bundle and yardage I had originally slated for another project that I no longer was making. In Cheryl's book, she talks about how to make your own charm pack if you want to use your stash. That's brilliant! Just cut up your favorite fabrics into 5” charm squares and you're ready to go.
The Emma collection is still available in some shops. Click Here to check out the Emma fabric.
Putting my spin on it:
One thing Cheryl asked me to do was put my own spin on the pattern. Even though I love how Taylors Square looks as designed, I thought it would be fun to make the quilt square using 16 blocks instead of 30. This makes the final quilt size 54” x 54”. I also added a border around the blocks and will be adding curved corners after my quilt is quilted. I love curved corners. They are so easy to make. Don’t forget to use bias binding!
Mockups:
After I selected my fabric and put my spin on the pattern, I quickly drew up the quilt in Adobe Illustrator so I could test out different color options. It's kinda like trying on clothes in a dressing room. It helps me see all the options, so I could pick just one. That was the hard part– picking just one. I really had a lot of fun with this. I tried out several different prints for the background and several different color options. See my color combinations below. If you have this collection in your stash feel free to screenshot one of the options and make your own Taylors Square.
I finally landed on a patriotic option using red, blue, and low-volume prints from the Emma collection with a Bella Solids 9900-200 background. Instead of using my charm packs, I decided to make my own charm pack using the fat quarter bundle. This way, I could save my charm packs for another project from the book.
Making the quilt:
The piecing instructions in the book are so easy to follow and well written. The only changes I had to make was the amount of fabric I needed for my pattern adjustment. Because I made my quilt smaller, I didn't need as many charm squares or other yardage. I won't be giving specific requirements because I don't want to give away the pattern cutting instructions.
When I was making the quilt I wrote down some tips that really helped me while piecing the quilt. Nothing fancy, but they worked for me.
Here are some tips:
Make a test block:
I first made a test block to make sure I understood the cutting instructions and block layout before cutting my entire quilt out. Test blocks also let me decide if I like the pressing instructions outlined in the book or if I want to press my seams in a different way that's more comfortable for me. The instructions say to press open for most seams and I would say that really helped ensure less bulk when assembling the quilt top. A lot of seams come together at the points.
HST marking tool:
This pattern uses a ton of HST and it really helped me to use a Frixon marker to mark my sewing lines. For this pattern you use the method of marking a diagonal line down the center and sewing ¼” on both sides of the line to yield two HSTs. I also found it helpful to use a Creative Grids 9" Seam Guide and align it diagonally with the square and draw two lines on each edge of the guide to make sure I was sewing correctly.
Trim down units:
I love when a pattern has us make a unit bigger, then trim down. That’s my favorite method. I don't know about you, but my piecing is never perfect, especially with HSTs. They always seem to come out small, so it was really nice to be able to make the HST units larger and then trim down to make sure they were the accurate size. I used my Creative Grids 6.5" square ruler to trim down my HSTs.
Use pins:
I typically don't use pins when piecing smaller units or my blocks together, but I found that using pins ensured that my points would line up because I pinned them together in the correct place which eliminated shifting when sewing on my machine. The pins I use are Clover Fine Quilting Pins.
I hope you enjoyed seeing my progress of Taylors Square. Head on over to @meadowmistdesigns to see more inspiration from the book. To snag her new book, head on over to www.meadowmistdesigns.com
Giveaway:
I love a giveaway and Cheryl was kind enough to offer a digital copy of her Just Two Charm Packs book to one lucky winner. Here’s how to enter the giveaway:
Sign up for my email list to enter. Click the button below:
If you are already on my email list, no worries. You can still fill out your information to participate in the giveaway. You will not receive duplicate emails from me.
Giveaway takes place from now through August 6, 2023.
Because the prize is a digital copy of the book, it's open worldwide.
Happy Quilting,
Heather
This blog post does contain affiliate links. I make a small portion of each sale placed using my affiliate links at no extra cost to you. This really helps me out alot. Thank you!