If you are a subscriber to my blog and interested in one of my quilts, you may be able to win one in December. Once the contest drops later this week on December 1st, I will only post here and not upload the posts to Facebook until a winner is declared.
The 96 - 5" Squares Christmas Charm Quilt I raffled off over the Thanksgiving weekend was a huge success, with only the people in the house eligible to win.
I started making these quilts at my bee retreat in October 2022. When I plopped down over 300 scraps of 5" squares of Christmas fabric on my cutting mat, I sat there for a few moments and tried to think of something fun to do with them. I initially thought of a quilt using half-square triangles (meaning I would have to cut the squares into two triangles) and then use a neutral background color to showcase the holiday fabrics. The quilt would resemble my colorful Manufacturing Sunshine quilt but with Christmas fabrics instead.
But sitting next to me was one of my mentors, Mary Nielsen, of M&M Sew Charming fame https://www.facebook.com/groups/2532318403687523. When she saw my giant pile of squares all stacked up neatly, she asked me how many I had. I blurted out, "Three hundred, plus!" Mary promptly said, "Make a 96 Charm Quilt because it is sew easy, and I'll sketch out the directions." She quickly got a sheet of graph paper and drew out the "pattern" for me, even though there is a PDF file on the M&M FB page.
Mary was right, along with Susie Stevenson, who made a few of these easy-peasy quilts last year. They were easy even after slicing and dicing on two diagonals and resewing the three pieces together so the blocks land on point (diamond shaped). They were so easy, and I wanted to use up the stack of charms that I brought that I made three of them that afternoon (sewing the tops together, not the quilting).
Collectively, and due to a couple of matches (unexpected), we raised over $800 this past Thanksgiving weekend! Shana won the quilt (my nephew Brandon's girlfriend)! She is on the right side of the quilt pictured below! And my daughter, Olivia, is on my left and is now on the board of https://justtryanit.com/ JTI! I am proud of all her efforts in helping kids and families in the fight of their lives with sick children. A massive shout of Thanks to my peeps and their donations! I'm thrilled I can do some small part to help the cause through my quilting efforts.
Please stay tuned for more details tomorrow.
bSoleille!
Terri
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