Sweet Candlelight! Introduction

I shared a "sneak peek" last week of a quilty project that I made. Today, I'm sharing the whole thing and while it's not a large project, it was really fun to make! It's a candlemat that I designed for Michele over at Quilting~Gallery. She will be using this as the project for her Fall Swap. Fabrics in the piece are from an "Adoring" charm pack by Sandy Gervais for Moda. And, for my readers out there that aren't quilters...... a charm pack is a collection of pre-cut 5" squares of fabrics from any particular fabric line. Moda provides lots of fabrics in charm square collections and more. I call this piece "Candlelight"................The design blossomed this past summer when I began playing around with some charm squares in 30's fabrics. I could see a candlemat that would allow me to enjoy a little bit of all the fabrics and it would make a nice gift or retreat project. So I drew up a sketch, then I began charting my measurements and had to change my sketch. :-) This was my "prototype"..............

I haven't done the binding on it yet because I was more interested in making sure my measurements were accurate so I wanted to make another one to double check my measurements (math has never been my best subject). I bought another Moda charm pack..... "Awesome" and again from Sandy Gervais. The bonus in the design of this project is that one charm pack will make two candlemat tops. I chose these fabrics for the first one. When it's quilted and bound, I'm going to add those autumn leaf buttons.

In the second version, you can see that the center and the side strips are the same but the corners and fabrics around the center are different. Most charm packs have enough variety to allow you to do this. If not, I'll bet you can find pleasing fabrics in your stash that will go well with any charm pack. :-)

After making three samples, I decided I was ready to cut into the "Adoring" charm pack. Here's the finished top before I quilted it. I originally planned to use linen for the backing but my linen was not the right color so I used a Kona cotton for the binding that had a linen look. As you can see in the first photo, the binding stays in the background and lets the fabrics "pop".

These are not traditional Christmasy colors but there was something about them, that really caught my eye. I think it was the turgoise. My mother-in-law, Ora, would have loved it. She had turgoise appliances in her kitchen when they built their house in the 1950's. I could not believe it when my husband took me to meet his parents for the first time in 1968. Her kitchen was awesome and I adored it! (Karla and Connie........do you remember Ora's kitchen?)

So now you know all about this little project soooooo.........read on for instructions and you can make it. You'll find the PDF instructions at Quilting~Gallery so you can follow those and with photos to guide you this should be a quick and easy project to stitch. Have fun!!

Sandi