Charmed

This is the first quilt I ever made. I had no idea what I was doing. I quilted the batting to the quilt before attaching the backing. I didn’t remove the quilting, I just quilted over it once I enveloped the whole thing. I kind of figured it was a learning experience. Turns out it’s the quilt that gets the most use around here. Jake used it as a nap quilt at day care seven years ago and Now Quinn does. It is a perfect picnic blanket and the soft flannel back just keeps getting softer. It’s not a true Charm Quilt as there are duplicate squares but it’s charming to me just the same.

When Elizabeth recently asked me to join a charm square swap I was reminded how much I love the simplicity of a one-patch quilt. I was too late to jump on that swap bandwagon but decided not to let that stop me. I’m going to host one of my own.

The guidelines are simple:

Send me an email or comment here letting me know that you wish to participate;

Send ten four-inch squares to each person participating (I’ll provide names and addresses);

I’ll limit the list to 15 participants so that no one has to cut more than 150 squares;

Fabrics can be anything you like but no duplicates to any one person, please;

There will be some sort of time limit, but it will be reasonable and take everyone’s busy schedules into account;

That’s it.

Don’t shy away if you’re not an experienced quilter. For me this is an experiment in storytelling – a modern interpration of the traditional swapping of squares of leftover dress-fabric. I hope to be able to look at any one square on my finished quilt and remember that it came from a friend in Washington whom I’ve never met or a neighbor down the street with whom I can’t seem to coordinate a coffee date (you know who you are).

I hope you’ll play along and I can’t wait to see what turns up.

Thanks for visiting.