One Thing Leads to Another

Week 3 - Quilt 3

One Thing Leads to Another

During the mid to late 90's, charm square exchanges were very popular. Our guild members took part in such an exchange for a year or so.

Today they are availabe from quilt shops and online.
 “Fat Quarter Shop” describes Charm Packs as follows: Charm packs are collections of 5" x 5" squares of fabric. Their popularity stems from the fact that they are affordable, easy to use, and the size is commonly used in quilting.

Our charm squares measured 6” x 6” and every month, each quilter would make enough sets of 5 or 10 charms (can't remember the exact number) to exchange with every person participating.

Around the same time, Catherine L. McIntee and Tammy L. Porath wrote Beyond Charm Quilts, The Ultimate Challenge. I loved what they did with their 100 - 5” x 5” charms. The challenge was to make as many quilts as they could, putting a small piece of each charm in each quilt. Tammy made 18 and Catherine, 21 quilts.

Christmas Cactus Variation

These were mostly miniatures, and I really liked “Finally” by Catherine. I enlarged the pattern to suit my needs and made my quilt twin size.

Each 8 ½” block is made up of four small squares, each made with a different fabric, plus divider strips, it is essentially a 9-patch block.

The pattern is a variation of the Christmas Cactus block.

The colours of the blocks changes diagonally across the quilt. The white background blocks are from different plain white fabric, giving slight variations, and were randomly placed in the quilt.

One thing led to another and I used strips cut from Fat Quarters for my skinny border in colours to match the adjacent blocks.

multi-coloured border

The binding on this quilt is reversible, white on top but again colour co-ordinated on the back side.

reversible binding

It was hand quilted by the St. Peter's Quilters, a local church group who donate the proceeds to St. Peter's Anglican Church. Each pieced block was outline quilted and the alternate plain blocks were quilted with a different design.

quilting design

This is the first quilt I ever had juried into a major competition. In 2002, it was hanging into the Canadian Quilters Association Show in St. John, N.B.

label

Historically, quilters collected fabrics for charm quilts and there are many stories and myths surrounding these. No two pieces in the quilt could be the same.

I have made one charm quilt, Pioneer Braid, which I will show you soon.

Today in Kenogami it is -19˚C (-2˚F) and snow might be on the way.
Have a great day!
Terry

Documentation:

Quilt Name: One Thing Leads to Another

Description:8 ½” blocks set on point with alternate plain block

Pattern: Christmas Cactus Variation

Size: 59” x 73

Fabrics: 100% cotton

Predominant colours: /white background, blue, green, red, purple, black

Construction Techniques: pieced

Back: muslin

Batting: polyester

Edge finish: Reversible double fold french binding

Quilting: Hand quilted

Quilted by: St. Peter's Quilters

Sleeve: Yes

Label: Yes

Date completed: 2002

Inspiration: Quilt named Finally by Catherine L. McIntee

Appraised: No

Quilt History: Juried into the Canadian Quilters Association Annual Show in St. John, N.B. & the 2004 Kirkland lake Mile of Fold Quilters' Guild Annual Show.

Maker: Terry Whyte