Girly Charm

Back in January, I ordered some charm packs off of Craftsy that were on sale.  I didn't have a plan for them...I just liked the fabric.  I knew I could find a way to use them eventually.  I ordered Anna Marie Horner's Field Study, Tula Pink's Birds and Bees, Denyse Schmidt's Chicopee and Ty Pennington's Impressions Spring 2012.

When I found out a friend, Stefanie, was expecting a little girl, I waited...and waited...and waited for something that indicated what she was going to be doing in her nursery.  I have a habit of wanting to coordinate if I can.  I also knew I couldn't wait too long since there were several other friends expecting that I wanted to make baby quilts for, so when no hints came my way, I pulled out my charm packs.  I kept looking at the packs separately wanting to keep the collections in tact, but I wasn't coming up with something that inspired me.  Then acting on complete impulse, I started sorting the packs into 2 piles, more feminine prints and others that were more gender neutral.  I just started laying out a simple design on the floor mixing everything together until I came up with something that I liked.  It was sort of an eclectic mix, but it made sense to me.

I pieced the squares I selected together and then went to the fabric store.  I laid out my quilt front and started pulling fabric off the shelves trying to figure out what would coordinate.  I knew I wanted to add a border to the front, but I didn't want to use white.  When I placed a mint green solid next to the quilt, I was sold immediately.  The backing was a small challenge.  I just didn't find anything that I liked except for a pink chevron print.  I'm not much of a pink person and I wasn't sure if Stefanie was either, but my instincts kept pulling me towards this bolt of fabric.  I decided to just go for it and hope for the best.  The binding was my toughest challenge.  I wanted to pick something that pulled all the squares together, but couldn't make up my mind until I came across a polka-dot fabric in the nursery fabric section.  I tend to shy away from that aisle at the store, but this particular fabric coordinated well.  I made my purchases and went home to finish the quilt.

The quilt came together quickly and I couldn't have hoped for a better finished product.  The thick border in the mint green was a nice compliment to the patterned squares.  The pink chevron backing looked great and the binding just pulled it all together.