I have been itching to share this quilt with you all since I started working on it, and the day has finally arrived!! Yay! From picking fabrics, to piecing, to binding, to photographing (and now to snuggling), it's been my favorite quilt to finish this winter. The pattern is beyond simple, and the results are stunning! It is striking in its minimalist simplicity and can be easily whipped up in one afternoon (the top, that is; I am not a wicked fast quilter yet, so that took me another day).
Without further ado, I introduce to you: Layers of Charm.
All that's needed is one layer cake and one charm pack with some binding and backing fabric. No cutting required. How much does that rock? Not to mention piecing is crazy simple, just place your charms in the corner of your layer cake squares and sew diagonally across the smaller square. There's even a YouTube tutorial. Before I start sounding like a cheesy commercial, I will say that I was a tad skeptical when the instructions told me to press my seams open. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Why expose your fingers to the steaming nostrils of your iron?" Not to mention, you end up with a weaker quilt because of it.
Now this I don't like to say quite as often but, I was wrong. When you press your seams open, you can pin through the centers of the seams in order to match them, and you get sexy corners every single time. (Except twice, but on the second try they were sexy, so that's what counts.) I've never had so many corners match up so effortlessly. I admit that I was a little nervous about some of my corners pulling apart what with my minimal quilting and all, so I hand-tacked little white x's across ten of the joints before calling it a night and leaving the rest to stand the test of time.
The entire set of fabric choices was inspired by The Coziest Quilt by Rad and Happy. Her minimal white and black with flannel really called to me. I cannot take any credit for my fabric pairings.
Nor can I take credit for the pattern! It is the Fat Quarter Shop's newest Shortcut Quilt made entirely from precuts, and you can find it for free on their website along with a bunch more examples of the quilt made in prints.
And because they are so friendly and wonderful over there, they are letting me give away a $25 gift card to purchase whatever your heart desires from their vast offerings. Just check out the entry options at the very bottom of the post! The giveaway closes at midnight EST on Sunday, February 15th, and I will announce the winner here next Monday.
Giveaway Closed.
I have since made this quilt again but with a black and white flannel.
Check out the monochromatic Layers of Charm quilt here.