Charming

I have mentioned I love charm packs? Yesterday I began made progress on a Christmas pillow. I am using the Charm Pack Quilt Along pattern/square that I spotted partly into, and way before I knew what a quilt along is. [I know, it should be obvious.] I have been planning this idea out for months, partly eager to get started, and partly wondering if it would be too difficult.

First- What I have learned: When you plan a quilt, know what you have to work with. SPECIFICALLY. Just knowing the colors you have is not good enough. You need [why am I saying you?] I need to know how many of each color I have.

Second - I made a lot of progress yesterday. I had already put the squares together [why are the solid Snow squares larger than the Fruitcake squares?] and drawn my guide lines. So yesterday I pieced, cut and pressed. I then paired up the rectangles. I would have sewn them too, but I wanted to prep for sleep.
It's great that all I have to do is piece my pieces. I feel like I'm almost done. That was the easy part. trying to turn it into a wreath was not. I expect my second [for me] and third [for mom] pillows to go the same way - rocky start, easy finish.

I don't have any related pictures to share, but here's a shot of a pillow I made for my friend a while back. I babysat her almost 3-yr old daughter Monday. It was so odd to walk in and see this - I forgot about it. What I loved the most was that it was obviously washed. It looked softer (but not washed out like it does in the pic).