Simple Sewing & Designs for using 5" CHARM SQUARES! 2nd in our series to use 5" squares or charms!

hi Quilters welcome to the second video in our series of quilts and projects using 5-in squares or charm packs start with two matching charm packs and FInd matches of two 5in squares the charm packs I used were called Willow by one canoe tube from Moda I pinned the matching squares together to help with organization some of the Fabrics in the chart packs have two squares in the pack some only have one per pack it will all depend on the fabric line I had originally planned to match pairs with another pair of charms of a different color from the same charm pack I had planned to use just the two charm packs but after doing some math I realized the project would only be 32 in x 40 in I decided to add two more charm packs of a background color to make the quilt 48 in x 56 in a lap size versus a smaller baby quilt instead of finding white charm packs I would have needed two I decided to cut yardage into 5in squares I used 1 and 3/4 yards to get 84 squares that I needed from the yardage I cut 11 strips that were 5 in by the width of fabric I subcut the strips into 5in squares I was able to get 88 squares out of the 11 strips and I only needed 84 for my project for this project each block will be 8 and 1/2 in unfinished or 8 in finished in the quilt and you will use four charms two of a background and two of a color to make one block four charm packs with 42 squares per package will equal 168 squares two of the charm packs are pattern Fabrics two of the charm packs are background Fabrics so that will be a total of 42 blocks to help keep me organized I pinned piles together that had two background squares and two matching charms from the charm packs there isn't a set pattern for this quilt because I'm going to give you lots of options and different ways that you can arrange the blocks once you have everything sorted it's time to sew each of the sets will be sewn the same way layer the background squares right sides together with the charm pack squares you can draw a line corner to corner on the wrong side of one of the background squares and sew a/4 inch away from the line on both sides or if you prefer you can use diagonal seam tape or a similar product to help guide you where to sew for the other set of squares you will sew qu in seam on opposite sides of the square make sure you sew on both sides of the diagonal line and both sides of the square every set of two squares that have a background and a fabric from the charm pack will be sewn the same way one on the diagonal and one straight [Music] [Music] at first I sewed the square sets just one at a time so that I made sure I was getting the one sewn on that diagonal and the one sewn straight but after a while once I got the rhythm of it I was able to chain stitch these through the machine and sew a bunch at the same time you can either sew one set at a time or you can change Stitch it's up to you do whatever method makes more sense to you [Music] [Music] [Music] I sent the whole pile through the machine cut them off at the end use my blade saer thread cutter to cut them apart and then sent them through the machine again to do the other side once they're all sewn it's time to cut the squares for the ones that have been sewn on the diagonal you need to cut between the diagonal lines for the squares that have been sewn on opposite sides of the square cut these in half both directions I used two small rulers and found the 2 and 1/2 in mark on both of the rulers to find the center on where to cut move one away to make the cut and then do the same in the other direction cutting it into four equal sections each of these sections should be a 2 and 1/2 in square diagonal lines will mean a diagonal cut straight lines will mean a straight cut at first I just did one set at a time until I kind of got into the rhythm of what I was cutting after a while I would lay out sever at one time and just go through them and make all the cuts as needed laying out more than one set at a time did help speed up the cutting process [Music] [Music] [Music] now it's time to press for both of these Cuts you will be pressing away from the background Fabric or toward the darker fabric make two matching four patch units from the four pieces cut from the square once pressed these four patch units will measure 4 1/2 in by 4 1/2 in make all of the four patch units out of the pieces cut and set aside the half square triangle units [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] once all the four patch units have been sewn and cut apart head over to the ironing board press the seams to one side if you prefer you could also press the seams open [Music] take the pile of the half square triangle blocks over to the cutting mat and we're going to trim each of these squares to 4 and 1/2 in by 4 and 1/2 in I use my 4 and 1/2 in Block lock ruler to get it all perfectly aligned put the ruler on the seam the groove on the back makes the very simple cut two sides spin it to the other side and cut the remaining two sides you can use any Square ruler that has a diagonal line that you can set on the seam to see where you're trimming once all these pieces are trimmed we'll have everything we need to start constructing the blocks each block will be made with two four patch blocks and two half square triangle Blocks made with the matching Fabrics this is where the fun begins there are many different ways that you can arrange these four pieces for your blocks so you have decisions to make you can play around with them a little while to figure out what kind of block is to your liking honestly you can make dozens of quilts with this simple idea just by changing the block and then rearranging the blocks when you lay them out it would also be easy to make this quilt bigger just by adding more charm packs of both the pattern fabric and the plain fabric you could even do pairs of matching charm packs with one background or you could have pairs of matching charm packs with a couple different backgrounds it's all up to you each of these blocks will also make secondary patterns when you start sewing the blocks together just keep rearranging the pieces until you find one that you like and this is the one that I've decided to go with my plan is to make some that have light in the center and some that have the darker Fabric in the center kind of like opposites of each other I had originally thought to make all of them exactly the same but with a secondary pattern in the center I wanted to alternate the light and the darks I don't know what the final setting of my quilt will be but I'm going to make all the blocks first and then figure that out now it's time to piece pie the blocks together using Quin seam allowances I usually laid out two blocks at a time especially when I had matching Fabrics I would have the light in the center for one of them and the dark in the center for the other I sent the blocks through the machine in the order in which they were laid out [Music] [Music] carefully do one block at a time and then cut the blocks apart in sets of two at the moment these two sections are being held together by the thread once you've checked that you had the pieces laid out correctly fold them down and sew the seam going the other direction I did not stop and press at this moment I just made sure that the seams were flipped towards the four patch units they should nest together at the center seam always double check that you've sewn the blocks correctly once I got done with all the sets that had matching Fabrics then I got into the single block sets I would make one that had the light Fabric in the center and one that had the dark fabric in the center the goal is to have an equal number of Light Center and dark Center blocks [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] once all your blocks have been made it'll be time to press [Music] for these blocks I'm going to press for the back side first I'll press towards the four patch unit on both sides of the blocks and then that Center seam I'm going to press that seam open just to reduce bulk when I press from the back I usually flip it around to the front at the end and make sure that I haven't pressed any creases into it once all the blocks have been pressed it'll be time to lay it out and figure out how you want to set it you have 42 blocks will be six across and seven down I had originally thought I wanted to lay it out 6x7 alternating the blocks so they would kind of form an a secondary pattern with the squares kind of set on point and then I tried an alternate setting where they were alternating dark and light but all set the same way facing the same direction and I fell in love with this setting because I have light rows with dark squares and dark rows with light squares sew the rows together pressing seams in One Direction alternate the seam direction for each row sew the rows together and press layer with batting and backing quilt is desired and bind I'm very happy with the way this quilt turned out I think it looks terrific the finished size was 48 1/2 by 56 1/2 here is the quilt made with the willow fabric I just did a quilting design of loops on there something really simple just to let the fabric shine and I did a kind of a eggshell colored thread and for The Binding we found a little pink that kind of matched and the backing was just a green fabric I made a second sample of this pattern using a different block setting the dark and light in this block mirror each other it's a little bit easier to see when it's set on point I made all of the blocks the same and then I had a lot of fun playing around with the settings these blocks were all made with leftovers from other projects so all the lights are leftovers and all the blues are mostly just two colors but all left over from other projects one thing I like to do is to rearrange the blocks and then take a picture with my phone so that when I go back through and want to see which setting I like the best I just have to look at my phone and then I can recreate it from the picture this block is made with the same four pieces two four patch units and two half square triangle units it's just amazing how many different looks you can get from the same blocks just keep rearranging the blocks until you get a setting that you like it would also be easy to make this bigger or smaller just by adding or subtracting blocks I didn't add borders to any of my quilts for this video but that would be another way to easily make your project just a little bit bigger in the end this was the setting that I like the most so so that's how I finished it this Quil top ended up being five blocks across and six blocks down the finished measurements were 40 1/2 by 48 1/2 here is the finished quilt in all its Glory it turned out fabulous I love the design for quilting I did this kind of floral design in there I used white thread for The Binding we picked out a blue and white stripe that looks really nice on the edge the backing is just little blue flowers very cute one charm pack is perfect for making a runner I didn't make 8 and 1/2 in blocks for this setting but I did set the individual ual half square triangle units and four patches as the blocks alternating as I went along this one is three across and 11 down the finished size was 12 1/2 by 44 1/2 here's another look at some of the block options that you have and here's a bonus idea for you we use charm packs to make this quilt but you could use the same technique using 2 and 1/2 in squares or mini charms or 10in squares or layer cakes Blocks made from the mini charms would end up finish size of 3 in Blocks made with layer cakes would have a finish size of 16 Ines honestly this technique would work for any size square that you had as long as you had two pieces that were matching of a light and two pieces that were matching of a dark don't be afraid to cut set apart your Fabric and play a little have some fun I achieved no progress on using up my charm packs this month because while I use the equivalent of eight charm packs for all the projects in this video I also found eight charm packs while cleaning so better luck next month we hope that you will remember to hit the like button leave us a comment share with your quilting friends and subscribe thanks for watching and happy quilting

Channel: The Quilted Forest

Views: 112,125

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Id: mlZ3CKItWCg

Length: 22min 29sec (1349 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 06 2024