Difficulty:
Category: Quilting
For: Home
Style: Traditional
Materials
100% cotton fabric Cotton/polyester mix batting
What was your inspiration?
i wanted to utilize left over cotton fabrics in a pleasing and colorful way. The traditional 'court house steps' pattern was utilized. There are no two center squares alike. Each center square is 2-1/2" (finished size 2") and all 'steps' are 1" strips (finished size 1/2"). The white sashing is the same fabric used as the white 'steps'. The sashing pieces are 1-1/2" wide (finished size 1") By using browns on the ends of the squares, and white on the sides of the squares it gives the illusion of spools of thread. Because each center square is different, it is a 'charm quilt'. Hence, I named it "Charming Spools".
What are you most proud of?
Machine pieced and hand quilted. I love all of the different fabrics that make up the colored squares. There are 150 different 'spools', and the quilt is sized for a twin bed, but can be used as a 'topper' on a double bed.
What advice would you give someone starting this project?
Cut and assemble all of your squares, and all of your 'step strips' first. I use a pant hanger from the cleaners to 'hang' all of my strips by color. Then use the 'chain sewing' method for assembling the blocks. The first 'steps' should be white on each side. Then the next steps should be the brown shades, then white again, and lastly the brown shades. This makes the spool ends shapely and pleasing to the design. The white sashing and side fabric for the 'spools' is all the same. I bordered it with a brown print that had stylized circles that looked somewhat like spools of thread. I hand quilted the quilt. It was a fun project. Took some time, but worth it.


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