Sew Charming: Scrappy Quilts from 5" Squares

I will always buy their books. I am lucky to live about an hour and a half from Country Threads and I learned a lot from these women. My dog was lucky enough to spend quality time there as well. They are the best examples of "Iowa Nice."

I often buy 5" charm squares when I find a lot of them on sale and I order 2-3 of them at the same time, same patterns. That way I have enough when making quilts like these in this book. How easy and fun this has been. Highly recommend this book.

The quilt projects in this book can start at baby/lap size, more than one version is shown and the instructions are clear and concise. I will be using this book a lot and it will be hard to select a first project.

The projects are just what I'm looking for., Everyone's a winner. Country Threads has been a wonderful design team ever since they began. I love the way they assemble charm packs and color.

In Sew Charming, the deliciously dynamic duo of Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene occasionally step outside the Civil War era designs they are known for. It is rather shocking to see so many alternate colorways in bright crayon colors and mod geometric prints. Plus, there is one quilt, "Diagonal Stripes" (33.5"×41.75") whose design could cause another Revolutionary War in the quilting world.But change is good, right? (Sniff, sniff ... right?) Perhaps the book will appeal to a wider audience. One great example is "Beach Ball Pinwheels" (31.5"×36") with its circles cut from 42 Pinwheel blocks. The curved edges are not folded over, but are sewn on as is and left to fray.There are several beautiful color combinations. The Civil War inspired "Charming Geese Runner" (17.5"×41.5") softly glows with its golds and warm browns. Its alternate surprises with an almost Asian inspiration. "Strawberries and Cream" (26.5"×35") is a calm alternate for the bling-y jewel tones of "Snowballs and Nine Patches".Etherington and Tesene do stick with their tradition of offering small quilts with small blocks, based mostly on traditional forms with Era-based fabrics. These new slightly mod outliers, which may very well appeal to more quilters, practically caused a Civil War right on my own bookshelf.

What made this book so great was the directions using scraps but also precuts. Great examples shown with some patterns shown in alternate colors.

Always looking for a book that I can use to make quilted table toppers or wall hangings with charm packs. Loved the designs in this book.

Good directions and fun small quilts. Lots of good ideas.Mary and Connie always come up with great quilt patterns and colors.Traditional/Modern