Sunday, March 1, 2009

Crazy 9 Patch Charm Pack

I ordered a two charm packs online a little over a week ago and was excited to do a crazy 9 patch with the squares.  I loved the fabric but I didn't want to buy a ton of it.  It's so hard to tell what fabric will look like online.  There have been several times when the fabric I've ordered online hasn't been exactly what I expected.  I figured charm packs were a safe bet to see what the fabric was like.  Plus, I've never worked with them, so I thought it would be a fun way to try both new fabrics and a new type of fabric bundle.  

The charm packs finally came in the mail a few days ago and I could finally give it a try. I'm glad I ordered the charms packs because the fabrics weren't as bright as I expected and I'm not sure I would buy some of the fabrics that I thought I would have.  I do love how all of the fabrics work together.  This might end up being a cute quilt for a baby girl.
 
Onto the actual creation of the crazy 9 patch... I created piles of 9 squares each, trying to mix up the colors in each pile.  I ended up with 8 piles total since there were 40 squares in each of the 2 packs I had.  I finished one pile and am in the middle of working on the other 7.  I might need to order one more so that I can have 12 total.  That way, I can combine the 9 squares from each pile into a block and have a quilt that's 3x4 blocks.  Right now, it's tough to do something with only 8 blocks.  

Here are the finished crazy 9 patches with one pile.  They end up being about 4 inches square once complete.  7 more piles to go!

 
I think I might add some sashing in between each square.  It's still a work in progress.  Maybe I'll turn these 9 into one block using sashing and then combine the others with a different color sashing.  Just a thought.  We'll see how things progress as I finish the other piles.  This is going to be fun.  I'm enjoying making things up as I go along.  This is really the first quilt that I'm doing it with.  I guess it means that I'm getting to be really comfortable after quilting for 6+ years now to be more adventurous.  

I'm curious, have you used charm packs before?  If so, what have you done with them besides just sewing the 5 inch blocks together? 

2 comments:

  1. Charm packs are a great way to get a line of fabric, without going over board. I like what you have created so far and I agree sashing would be a nice option.

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  2. I like it! Recently I've done something with two packs of charms... If you have a little time, pop in and have a look!

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