Easy 1 Charm Pack Baby Quilt

I love figuring out ways to use precuts--especially ONE charm pack! We all have them, but what can you really do with them? I was determined that I could make a

baby quilt for charity with just one pack and about 1/2 yard of background fabric.

(Or use your stash to cut (40) 4 1/2 inch coordinating squares instead of a charm pack )

I started by putting the squares on my design wall to see what I might come up with. This collection is "Flower Doodles" by RJR. Don't remember where or when I got it.

This arrangement uses 40 of the 42 squares.

Since many of the squares were on the lighter side, I decided to use a darker background. Instead of trying to get the "perfect" color, I just went to my stash and found a red tone-on-tone print that would contrast nicely. But before I sewing anything, I trimmed the 5 inch squares to 4 1/2 inches to make the quilt math a lot easier.

Square up to 4 1/2" sq.

I constructed two units, A & B For this one charm pack baby quilt, you will construct

(14) A units and (13) B units.

Set A has two background (red) rectangles (4 1/2" x 3 1/2")

with one 4 1/2" charm square in the center.

Set B includes two charm squares with

one background (red) rectangle (4 1/2" x 2 1/2") in the center.

I pressed to the red background, but it really doesn't matter which way.

The best part about sewing the units in rows is that there are no seams to match!

Each row has 9 alternating units. Rows one and three start with unit A and end with unit B

The middle row starts with unit B and ends with unit A.

I wanted the quilt to be a little larger so I added 2 1/2 " sashing in between the rows

and a 4 1/2" border to the top and bottom. (Cut borders and sashing 36 1/2" wide).

Cut the sashing and borders WOF and the cut down to 36 1/2"

My quilt top is about 36" by 42". You could also add side borders, but I chose not to.

That way I can quilt it on my long arm and still have enough room on the sides w/o having to piece the back. Another 1 1/2 yards of backing fabric would be plenty. If you quilt it on your domestic machine, you could get by with a little less.

I hope you have fun making this. It's SO EASY and Fast! (my kind of quilt!)