My first finish of the year.  And it was not my original plan.  Actually, I didn’t remember my original plan until I found the pattern after I had pieced the quilt together.  That being said it probably would not have worked out the way I wanted.

This beauty started out in 2006 for a retreat I helped coordinate with the Fauquier County Quilters.  My co-coordinator was Karen Goula, who was instrumental in my getting anything done.  The retreat went without a hitch without this particular quilt.

The initial charm quilt was this one.  It’s a little long and not very wide as the apartment I was living in at the time had too much stuff for the space I inhabited so anywhere I laid it out was narrow.  Truth be told, I probably got bored and decided it was finished before it was supposed to be.  Terry Burris Quilting took on the job of quilting this beast.

There are a whopping 1274 pieces in this quilt.  It measures 81″ x 121″  which is awkward and doesn’t really fit a queen size bed (or any bed for that matter).  I’m considering cutting it in half and just binding the edges providing I can find the fabric I used originally.  Each half would still be over 600 pieces and the quilts would be more manageable and useful.

Charm quilts were popular during the 1870’s when factories were putting out a generous amount of fabric.  The quilts were also known as Odd Feller quilts referring to the idea that no two pieces of fabric would be identical.  The  quilts are a one patch quilt composed of only one template.  The other name for these quilts was Beggar Quilts because the women would ask their friends, neighbors and family members for bits of fabric to collect enough scraps to complete their quilt.

These delightful “Charmers” were constructed with a minimum of 999 pieces of fabric and no two pieces of cloth were identical.  A story evolved where mothers would make coverlets and quilts of different fabrics with the exception of two.  When the children would be recuperating from illness they would be kept busy trying to find the matching fabrics.  Another reason that one might find a duplicate would be that the quilter lost track of the material she already used, or received the same fabric from two different friends.

More recently, during the Millennium, many quilters celebrated by constructing quilts containing 2000 different fabrics.  After doing this one, I can’t imagine doing one with twice as many pieces.

During the end of October into November I kept tripping over and moving the box with this project in it.  Although I had plenty of other projects to complete, this was the one yelling the loudest and constantly tripping me up, so on the design wall it went.  I worked vigilantly and there were times I really would have preferred to work on something else (REALLY)  but I kept with it.  If I had put it away I probably would have never got back to it.

The quilt was inspired by the book The Classic American Quilt Collection One Patch put out by Rodale Press in 1995.  The pattern is called Natural Balance.  Construction is simple but you need to pay attention to color placement in order to make the pinwheels.  I’d Be Charmed has 1024 pieces.  I’m pretty certain you won’t find any two exactly alike.  She measures a generous 80″ square.  Quilters Corner in Midlothian did the quilting.  The backing came from AQS.

Although I had signed up for this to be my finishalong 4th quarter finish, it just didn’t make the deadline.  Still late to the party is better than no party at all!

Thanks for stopping by, and I’d love to hear about your “Charming” experiences!