My Charm Quilt

In my UFO post a few days back, I told about my Charm Quilt. Susan asked to see a picture of it, so here it is!

In my late teen age years I subscribed to a girl's magazine called Kindred Spirits that was published by a home school graduate. I wrote an article for the Jan/Feb 1998 issue, and will share some of it here:

I'd like to share with you a quilt that I am sewing. It is called a "charm quilt" because each fabric is used only once in the entire quilt. According to the library book from which I got this pattern (called a Tumbler Quilt), charm quilts were popular in the 1930's. When I saw this quilt pattern, I knew that I wanted to make it. After reading the instructions, I realized I would need 1,053 different pieces of fabric! Since we sew many of our own clothes, I thought "No problem, we probably have at least half that amount in our scrap box." However, as I went through the box, I found around 100 different scraps that could be used for the quilt. So began my search for fabric scraps!

I got fabric from anyone who would give me fabric! A joke around our house was that you better watch your shirt sleeves if I was around, because I just might cut a quilt piece out of it! *Grin* I made double sure that there are no fabric repeats in the entire quilt. After seeing so many different pieces of fabric, I forgot sometimes that I'd already used a particular scrap in my quilt. When I found the offending double, out came the seam ripper!

In the same article I also applied the quilt to our lives:

Each piece is different. The same is true of our lives. Each day we have a new "piece" to start. Some of my pieces are very plain and ordinary. Yes, some of our days are just simply mundane--there is no other way to look at them. Yet in my quilt, I need the simple, plain pieces to balance the lighter pieces, just as in our lives we need the simple days to let our hearts talk with God. The design of my quilt calls for many light-colored, cheerful scraps. Oh it is so nice when our lives are going the way we would like them to go--every step of the way happy and bright. However, I need an equal amount of dark colored scraps, but they need not be dreary! Many of the dark pieces are my favorites. Everything that happens in our lives is for our benefit, even when we don't think so. Just because we are going through trouble, let us not forget to give thanks to the Lord. David said in Psalm 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word."...

I would love to have this quilt finished! It is such a cheerful, unique quilt!