Layers of Charm with Fat Quarter Shop

Hello everyone and happy Monday (again)! :)

Today's blogpost is about a new Shortcut Quilt project of the Fat Quarter Shop. It is called the Layers of Charm. With this post, I will also reveal my Sweet Darling quilt that I made with this pattern by using only solid fabrics.

The Fat Quarter Shop approached me (and other quilt bloggers) and asked if I would be interested in participating in a blog hop to introduce this new project and I happily accepted it.
They sent us the pattern which had instructions for four different size quilts.
To make a Layers of Charm quilt, you will need one layer cake and one charm pack. It is so quick and easy to make that you can whip up a queen size quilt in a day! I chose to make a crib size quilt and it only took me a couple of hours to put together the quilt top.
Now some photos!

You probably noticed that my quilt doesn't have a binding. I took these photos yesterday when the weather was windy but nice enough to take outdoor photos. So glad I did because today it was really miserable; no sun but really strong wind. The quilt has a binding now in that gorgeous blue in the top right square.

For this quilt, I used the colours that I chose from the 2014 New Kona Cotton Solids layer cake and charm pack. The finished size it approximately 38 inches by 38 inches. You can tell I like bright colours!

When I finished the quilt top, I really didn't have an idea about how to quilt it. I looked at several FMQ designs, spent a fair bit of time on Pinterest searching "quilting negative space". I just didn't find the inspiration I needed nor a pattern that made me say "yes, this one". A few days later when having lunch at work, I just picked up the paper and pen and started sketching and came up with this design I used in the quilting. 

There is quite a bit straight stitching here! Because I only used solids, I wanted to make the quilting dense, let it talk and enhance the quilt pattern. I wanted to bring out the squares that are formed in the centre of each block by stitching a four point star and echoing it around. I created the same star in the very centre of the quilt as there is no square pattern there and made some of the straight lines cross over to the others to make a checkered area. By doing so, I created an attention point in the centre as well. I am very happy with how it turned out!

I made a REALLY good decision by choosing a crib size quilt. Straight stitching takes a lot of time, patience and it shows even the smallest, slightest wonkiness in your stitching, which is widely available on this quilt!

If you want to make the Layers of Charm quilt, the Fat Quarter Shop has a tutorial on their Youtube Channel.
I am looking forward to seeing what others made-so exciting!!

Also, I wasn't able to post the Monday Makers!#25 link because of a technical problem-SOLVED. So, if you have any projects that you would like to share with me and others, come join me and link up your new project you start today and/or a finished one from last week. Why not linking up your Layers of Charm quilt ;-)

1. Your project can be anything you start on that Monday as long as it makes you move and be active and creative: a new quilt, a knitting project, scrap booking, cross-stitching, baking-we don't mind yummy recipes!, a gardening project, painting your house!, tidying up the pantry!...This is your Monday and you are the maker of the day!

2. Grab the button from the side bar- DONE!!- or put a link back to me in your Monday post.

3. Click on "add your link" and just fill in the required areas. 
4. Please link to your specific post, not to your homepage: We would like to find your post easily.
5. Please take time to visit other links and leave a sweet comment: We love comments!

6. Share the photos of your finished Monday projects in your next link up- I am hoping you will come back again!: Who doesn't love a sweet, finished project or a "before-after" photo?

An InLinkz Link-up