charm pack – tierneycreates

Updates

May 28, 2015 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

One of the cool things about blogging is I feel obligated to complete the projects I write about. Maybe you all do not really care (ha!) but I feel a sense of obligation to finish things or my readers will think I am a…non-finisher (not even sure if that is a proper word).

Here is an update on some projects related to previous blog posts:

The Charming Continues

In my posts What’s on the Design Wall: Rediscovering My “Charms” and What’s on the Design Wall: Pre-cuts Wrangling, I discuss trying to use up my out of control collection of pre-cuts such as charm squares (5 inch pre-cut coordinated squares). Another charm square quilt has been completed – this one I call The Charming Continues. It was pieced by my quilting husband and myself using a couple Moda Basic Grey charm packs and coordinating Moda Basic Grey/Grunge line of fabric. It was long-arm quilted by Betty Anne Guadalupe of Guadalupe Designs. Originally I was going to list it on my Etsy shop but I fell in love with it and it is very happy now in my cozy reading area (where the 370 Craft Books live, see that post…).

The back is fabric from Moda’s Basic Grey line of fabric

In the reading nook waiting for cozy book reading

Right on Target

In a recent post, What’s on the Design Wall: Not What Should Be There, I discuss how at a recent quilt retreat, I began impromptu working on the same quilt another retreat attendee was piecing – the pattern Right on Target. I have now completed piecing the top and now I am deciding whether to use it as a quilt or as a quilted tablecloth. I am going to quilt it myself (just a simple “stitch in the ditch” or “stitch outside the ditch”). I am happy it did not become an UFO (unfinished object) – this can happen to random projects you start on an impromptu basis at a quilt retreat!

Studio

A “Charming Quilt”

April 29, 2015May 2, 2015 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

In my posts What’s on the Design Wall: Rediscovering My “Charms” and What’s on the Design Wall: Pre-cuts Wrangling, I discuss trying to use up my out of control collection of pre-cuts such as charm squares (5 inch pre-cut coordinated squares).

Update: I continue to work through my pre-cuts collection, actually MAKING QUILTS out of them instead of using them to just decorate my studio!

Below is a quilt, “Charming You”, that I created from two packages of charm squares (40-42 squares per package) Moda fabrics. This quilt measures 45″ x 61″ and has a cozy flannel backing. I just got it back from the long-arm quilter and it is ready to put on the Etsy shop!

Charming You (2015). Pieced by Tierney Davis Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne Guadalupe

Studio, What's on the Design Wall

What’s on the Design Wall: Rediscovering My “Charms”

March 1, 2015July 13, 2016 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

If you would like to see what is on my design wall in regards to new pieces for The Wardrobe Meets the Wall Collection, check out the post In Progress on The Wardrobe Meets the Wall blog. To stay up to date on Sassy the highly opinionated miniature schnauzer’s check out her page Schnauzer Snips.

CHARM PACKS

If you are quilter you know exactly what I am talking about – those addicting little charm packs. If you are not a quilter – charm packs are collections of precut 5 x 5 in. squares in coordinating fabrics. They are a great way to sample a new fabric collection – they usually come in packs of 40 squares and have at least one of each fabric in a collection. They can also come in solid fabric collections.

I fortunately or unfortunately have acquired quite a stash of charm packs over the years.

You go into a quilt shop and see a new fabric collection and daydream of a yard of each of the new 20 fabrics. Then you remember you need to eat and keep a roof over your head so you don’t give into the temptation of such a glorious shopping spree. Walking away from the collection you were coveting, you spy over in the corner the charm packs sets for the new fabric collection! You now think – “Yes! I can have a taste of the new collection (and still be able to pay my mortgage)!”

You bring them home, with no particular plans in mind for them and put them with the rest of your impulse buy charm packs…

A year ago I decided to stop hoarding charm packs and to actually use them. There are many wonderful books with charm pack specific patterns – patterns designed to start with 5 in. squares and go from there. I made a couple quilts from these pattern books, but quickly burned out of this structured traditional quilt making. So I put the rest of the charm packs back in their display (gather dust) area and forgot them.

I was reorganizing my fabric a week ago and came across my stash of charm packs again and thought: Why do I have to use a pattern? Why can’t I just do something initiative and “modern quilting” style? So I took two charm packs of collections of various solid color batik fabrics and randomly sliced each 5 x 5 in. square into three sections. Then I reassembled this huge pile of charm pack sections into random columns. I experimented and sliced up one of the columns to make thinner columns and alternated the columns.

I am still experimenting and plan to create table runners out of these columns. Below are photos of “playtime” on my my design wall.