Charmed By Monkeys Quilt

Charmed by Monkeys is a  Charm Square Quilt in scrappy style making Monkey Wrench Quilt blocks from the Charm Squares.   I wanted to make a new baby quilt.  This block is also known as Churn Dash.

Click on the link below for the Free Tutorial on how I make these blocks in an easy style.

Treading on Monkey Wrench Blocks and Tutorial

I set about cutting more charm squares to use for this quilt.  I drew from my pre cuts in mostly blue, gold and red because it is a quilt for a baby boy.  Each block is unique with an assortment of fabrics.

Charm squares are ideal for this quilt as the units will perfectly fit together.   All the pieces can be created from the 5″ squares!

These Monkey Wrench Quilt Block units were pieced on my 1902 Treadle!  The Singer 66 has a lovely big bobbin.  Seems to go on for ages.  Very relaxing piecing on a treadle.  Something about it – like womb music.  Maybe the womb music will be stitched into the baby quilt!  Ha ha.

As the quilt blocks were starting to grow I auditioned it with sashings but it seemed the quilt became quite blanched.  Having slept on it for a couple of nights, I revisited the sashings.  Because the colours looked more muted, I decided it had a bit more of an antique look.  I like that!  The orange sashing fabric has alphabet letters printed on it, which is lovely for the baby quilt.

So I looked at it again and revised it with chocolate squares as the cornerstones.  This picked up the darker colours too.  The blue gingham is on the cross points of the blocks.

It’s amazing how the same blocks can look so different and how the colours are moderated by the sashings.  I added the blue gingham, because everything is good with gingham.  The border is of blue gingham  punctuated with the brown cornerstones.

I assembled all the blocks with the sashings and cornerstones.  then added the outer border of the blue gingham and brown cornerstone pieces.

I quilted the quilt with an all over triple loop and swirling loop design from edge to edge.

I decided to quilt it like this as the quilt is busy and scrappy.  I don’t like baby quilts “over” quilted as they become too stiff.  I prefer them to be a bit drape-able   It keeps it soft as is for a baby after all.

The quilt is finished with a red checked binding.