WIP Wedneday - Charm Pack Cherry sans cherries!

I did it... I jumped on the bandwagon. I kept seeing these fabulous quilts around the blogosphere made from Fat Quarter Shop's Charm Pack Cherry Pattern. In search of some quilty distraction, I grabbed one the charm packs that has been languishing on my shelf and got to work!

Thank goodness I had a small bolt of Kona Snow on hand... I always worry about mixing prewashed fabric and "fresh" fabric. Cutting straight from the bolt took some of that away.... now I'll just obsess about whether the colours are going to run when washed. I am such a creature of habit!

If you're looking at these fabrics and thinking "These seem just a little off...", you wouldn't be wrong! I'm not a buyer of charm packs. These were a thank you from Sew Sisters for taking up their Kona Club Challenge. Don't panic - I haven't gone all floral on you! 

I was having a hard time not planning my fabric selections, so I grabbed a plastic bin and gave the charm squares a good shake. It makes plappy (planned+scrappy) quilts a little more doable!

First up, I had to sew some nine patch blocks. Nothing too wild and crazy there! The only tricky bit was that the pattern called for 2 charm packs (72 print squares) and I only had one. I figured I'd wing it and see what size quilt I could come up with.

 In the end, there were just these two sad squares left. Those tone on tone ivory dots wouldn't work at all!

 Some of the completed blocks pre-slicing.

I've said it before, I'll likely say it again. There is something that makes me VERY uneasy about slicing into a completed block.

To get enough blocks to make a 3 block by 3 block quilt (as opposed to the pattern's 4 block by 4 block layout), I had to get a little creative with the leftover bits!

But in the end, it all worked out! Once you figure out that there are two types of blocks and figure out how many you need of each, adjusting the pattern is pretty easy. It helps that slicing the nine patch blocks isn't a point of no return!

The finished top is roughly 40 by 40 inches. It came together in just a few hours over two evenings... not too shabby! I'm already thinking that this could be a fun way to use those Kona Charm Squares I won! And I'd get the bonus of crossing off all 32 new colours from my Kona Love list!

I'm hoping to link up with WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced and Let's Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts. If you find that I haven't, you can rest assured that my biggest WIP, Double Trouble, has made some real progress this week!

J

P.S. If you're a blogger and have made a quilt from this pattern, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your blog... maybe we'll get a few more people on the bandwagon!