Interlude

You know how sometimes when you are working on a large, complicated quilt you sometimes want to just make something fast that you can finish in a day? Well, I am working on one of those quilts. And last night I found the fast, finish in a day idea!

I was reading a blog called Doxies On My Quilt (found it at the Quilting Blogger's website!) and came across this entry: http://doxiesonmyquilt.blogspot.com/2008/11/sa-and-freshly-sliced.html. What a fabulous quilt! It is so cute! And that's when I knew exactly what I was going to do with some charm packs I had from the "Bistro" collection by Deb Strain for Moda.

Before I go on, I want to say that this is not my original idea. I got it from the above blog. I couldn't find a copyrighted pattern in an Internet search. I did find lots of places and blogs that offer free instructions on how to make it! It's a fantastic idea, so thanks to whoever came up with it! And thanks to Rhonda of the above blog for making this cool quilt, and sharing it!

This was super easy, and super fast! And it's super cool!

So first I (somewhat) randomly sewed the 5" squares into 9-patches:

Then, I cut them into quarters:

Then I laid it out!

The blocks are very easy to manipulate so you don't have to match any seams while sewing the rows together. That's a definite plus in my book! It took about 3 1/2 hours to get to this point. Not bad at all! I used 4 charm packs and made 16 9-patch blocks, for a total of 64 quarters. I used 63 of them for the top. The last one I'll use as a label.

It's *almost* as fast as the Yellow Brick Road pattern from Atkinson Designs, which is another standby favorite of mine when I need a quilt for babies, people in hospitals, or charities in a hurry!

Isn't that cool? I love those quilts that can be popped out in a day. They make a nice break from the ones that take weeks, and really help keep you motivated!