What can you make with 6" charm squares?

Autumn fabric 6" charm squares

It's been interesting to get into my stash and try to pare it down by cutting 6" charm squares to sell on Etsy. I've decided to cut a set of squares for myself alongside the sets I'm cutting for potential sale. I want to challenge myself to make something out of a charm square set.

In addition to just using them as is, here are some things you can do with 6" squares that have come to mind while cutting:

1. You can get two half-square triangles that will finish at 5" from two 6" squares. You could either trim the squares to 5 7/8" first, or sew the HSTs first and then trim them to 5 1/2".
2. Cut two 6" squares into four equal 3" squares each. Pair the squares up and sew eight HSTs that will finish at 2". (Same as with #1, either trim the squares to 2 7/8" or trim the HSTs to 2 1/2".)
3. Cut two 6" squares into nine equal 2" squares each. Pair the squares up and sew eighteen HSTs that will finish at 1". (Again, trim squares to 1 7/8" or HSTs to 1 1/2".)
4. Cut one 6" square into two 3" x 6" strips. Cut another 6" square into four 3" squares. Use quick piecing methods to make two flying geese units.
5. Cut 6" squares into 2" or 3" strips for use in a roman coins quilt, rail fence quilt, or piano key border.
6. Cut two 6" squares across both diagonals into 4 triangles each. Sew two triangles of each print to make an hourglass block that finishes at 4 3/4".
7. Cut a 6" square into four 3" squares, and then cut one of the 3" squares into four 1 1/2" squares. Cut two 3" squares from a neutral or solid fabric. Use quick corner piecing to sew a 1 1/2" square to one corner of the neutral or solid squares. Sew two of the 3" charm squares to the two neutral/solid squares to make a bow tie block.

The ideas... they just keep coming! I need to stop cutting and start sewing...

Blue 6" charm squares

Food and drink novelty 6" charm squares

Fabric gift wrap

I had an overdue baby shower gift for my cousin and his wife that I needed to wrap before mailing. I was just about to dig out some wrapping paper and ribbons when I thought, "I must have fabric in my stash I can use."

I think these bits of the Cogsmo panel and circuitry print were just what I needed. I fussy cut two images from the panel, sewed a narrow channel across the top of each, sewed them together on three sides to make a simple bag, and then pulled (or rather, pushed with a bamboo skewer) a piece of wool yarn through each channel and tied them together to form a drawstring. Into the bag went a book. The shirt I just rolled up in a piece of the circuitry print and tied on either end with yarn so it looks like a big piece of candy. I hope they like the gifts, and I hope they can re-use the wrapping!

Placemats will save us all

I have decided that, in order for my children not to give the impression to the world at large that they were raised by wolves, I need to make placemats. I didn't realize until very recently the civilizing force of a simple set of placemats, but now that I don't have any, I miss them tremendously.

Actually, I think we do have some "special occasion" placemats tucked away in the linen closet, probably under the table cloth we use once a year at the holidays. Oh that's right -- we have that set my mother-in-law gave my husband before I met him, most likely in the hopes that he would use them and thereby show the world that he was not in fact raised by wolves despite his bachelor (read: light on the housekeeping) ways.

When I was growing up, every night my brother and I would have to set the table for dinner, which included putting out placemats, napkins (paper), and silverware. It was hardly Downton Abbey-esque in terms of formality, but there were rules and expectations for how we behaved at the dinner table. The hubby and I have been exceedingly casual about mealtimes up until now, doing a lot of eating in front of the TV, or on the go, or whenever the mood strikes. But Little H (our toddler) has been old enough to eat at the table with us for a while, and it's time to indoctrinate train teach her how to eat at the dinner table.

When the three of us sat down to eat last night (Littler J the baby was taking a late nap) it wasn't just the odds and ends that had been pushed to one end of the table to make room that made it feel like it wasn't quite the family table I want. It just seemed so unfinished and bare without the unifying effect of placemats.

Am I making too big a deal out of this? Perhaps. Maybe I just want an excuse to sew something relatively quick and easy. I do know that deciding to pare down my stash by trying to sell precuts has been one of the best motivators to get me to want to sew from my stash and not just look at it from afar. Getting in there, pulling out fabric, trying to figure out what goes with what and how it could be used has made me think, "Well, if this doesn't sell, I'll just make [fill in the blank] out of it."

Doesn't matter the reason. I've decided I want placemats, so placemats I shall have!

OK, this time it's serious!

By most quilters' standards, my stash is not big. But considering how slowly I move through it, it's too big for me. So I need to get serious about paring it down and doing some destashing. I know, I've said that before, but this time I mean business! There's just too much new stuff I want. Speaking of which, you know how hard it is to find yardage of the latest Paris map fabric from Moda? I waited so long to get any it's practically sold out everywhere I looked, even on eBay and Etsy. I'm glad I found a couple of yards online, but let that be a lesson to me -- if I really know I want something, there's no point in waiting!

So that's where my renewed determination to destash comes in. I decided to try doing some precuts to sell through my little Etsy shop, and I have more in mind. In addition to the baby quilt and I Spy-friendly items shown below, I still have some Moda and FreeSpirit fat quarter bundles for sale. And there will probably be more of those to come, too. Like I said, it's time to be honest with myself about what I think I'll use vs. what I like to collect (not always the same thing)!

Flitter Flannel 12" squares

Zoo Menagerie fat 1/8s

Food & Drink novelty 6" charm squares

Baby quilt completed

A few days ago I wrote about my frustration starting a new machine quilting project. I think it wouldn't be so frustrating if I hadn't had reasonable success quilting the baby quilt for my friend. Again, I had to alter my settings once I got started from what I'd settled on with my test sandwich, but not nearly to the same extent as I'm having to do with this other quilt, which I'm making for my sister. I guess that's where the extra bulk and weight of my sister's quilt makes a difference -- it's about 55" x 80" whereas the baby quilt is about 43" x 55". Each quilt is its own learning experience is the moral to this story.

But as far as the baby quilt goes, it turned out well. Nothing fancy, just simple borders and cornerstones and minimal quilting. I tried a new technique for the binding -- I attached it first to the back, then used a zigzag stitch to finish it on the front. You can see the zigzag on the back, but I'm OK with that. As I've told my friend, this is a quilt that's meant to be used and washed and used some more.

Once it was finished and washed and dried, I was so happy I'd stuck with using quilt shop-quality fabric. It's just so soft. I have a scrap quilt I made a few years ago from fabric I'd purchased from a variety of places, and despite having been washed multiple times it's nowhere near as soft as the baby quilt was after just one time through the washer. If I wasn't a convert to good fabric before, I sure am now.

The only solution is chocolate cake

*sigh* Actually, that should be *SIGH* *GRRRR* *#%@$! crap*

It doesn't matter how much I test the settings on my machine with a little quilt sandwich before preparing to machine quilt. I mean, yeah, the test helps me get a ballpark idea of what's going to work in terms of tension and stitch length. But the real tests, unfortunately, have to wait until the actual bulky quilt is in the machine and I am attempting to do some actual machine quilting. And then it just becomes a game of "will this tension setting work better? No? What about this one?" I feel like I squandered the better part of a perfectly good overlapping nap period ripping out lines of quilting. On my last attempt, the top stitches finally looked good, but the bobbin tension is now far too loose and the back looks terrible.

So rather than use up the last few minutes of quiet ripping out that quilting, I did what any quilter in her right mind would do -- cut a big slice of the store-bought chocolate cake sitting on the counter and went to town. Figuring out what I'm doing wrong with my sewing machine will just have to wait.