New Quilt: Charming Chevrons - Designed by Christa Watson

I purchased a quilt kit from Christa Watson of ChristaQuilts.com.  I purchased the kit several months ago but I haven’t had the opportunity to put it together until now.  The quilt is so stunning that it was published on the front cover of "Quilty" Magazine, the November/December 2013 issue.

The kit includes two Charm Packs (42 in each) 5-inch squares of solids, two Charm Packs (42 in each) 5-inch squares of light background and 1/2 yard fabric for binding.  3 additional yards of backing and a 52" x 60" piece of batting are needed to complete the quilt that you will have to purchase yourself.




To make the quilt, the directions are as follows:

Place one dark solid and one background, RST (right sides together).  Mark from one corner to the other with any ruler and sew 1/4" on either side of the line or use a ruler that is similar to the "Quilters Magic Wand" from www.studio180design.net. 

"The Quilters Magic Wand" is 1/2" wide and has a line down the middle.  You place the line at two of the corners and use a pen or pencil to draw a line on each side of the ruler.  It is far easier for me to just sew on a line that is already marked.

The background squares were smaller than the dark squares so I just placed it as close as I could to the middle of the non-background square. 

Just make a cut between the sewing lines with your ruler on both corners. 

I opened both pieces and you will have two HST (half square triangles), iron them open, half pressed toward the light/background fabrics and the other half to the non-background fabrics. Each pair made will be ironed in the same direction.
 

I made a total of 84 HST's.  I like this method of making the HST because you have a larger square and you can trim them down to 4 1/2" squares easily and they will be close to accurate, as long you are accurate when you trim them.

This is the placement of the HST to make each chevron.









I sewed the tops together because I could butt the seams together.  I get a very accurate seam that meets almost perfectly at 1/4 inches.

The two bottom pieces go together just as easily. This is why half of the seams are ironed towards the background and the other half to the solid.

I ironed both seams open because there was quite a lot of bulk in the middles of the block where all four seams meet.

I sewed the top and bottom together and also ironed the seam open.  I know that it takes more time to do this but it is so worth the trouble when your block lays flat.



I will post more photographs of the chevrons as I sew more today.