QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Monday, July 16, 2012

Metropolitan Fair Charm Pack: Free Pattern

The precut squares, fat quarters and strips of JellyRolls for Metropolitan Fair should be in shops. Here's a free pattern for a quilt made with the Charm Squares, the 5" square precuts.


Mince Pie

Slice your Moda Charm Packs into triangles. Reassemble.
It's Mince Pie.


Mince Pie was a dessert served at the Metropolitan Fair in 1864, traditional fare in any New England Kitchen
The New England Kitchen was a popular attraction
at that event that raised money for Union hospitals.

I know it's not really time for mince pie.
 But the Charm Packs are available now. They'll be hard to find in November.


The small scrappy quilt (38" x 46") above is made from 2 Moda Charm Packs.
You'll also need some extra yardage for the border- 1/2 yard.

The Block
We're using precut squares so we aren't going to worry about measuring. As in pie it's all about slicing.



I can't find this block in BlockBase anywhere---hard to believe no one ever published it with a name. I like Mince Pie.



Slice your two packs of charm squares (5" x 5") into 4 triangles with an X

to make 4 triangles from every Charm Square.
Cut all 84 squares up and mix and match on the design wall.


I'd piece 4 triangles into 4 larger triangles and then seam them together.


Concentrate your shading decisions on the X in the middle, contrasting the lights and darks here. When you set the blocks, rotate them so one X has a light shade at the top and the next has a dark shade at the top.

The 5" squares will give you a block that finishes to a little bit less than 8". It doesn't matter exactly how big it is because the blocks will all be the same size. You need 20 blocks set 4 by 5.

I used this stripe for the border, which finishes to 3". It's Number 8234-11. The print is called Jacob's Well, the color Celery Salad Green. (Celery Salad and Mince Pie---I'm not making up this menu.)
For the border cut
2 strips 3-1/2" x 40-1/2" for the sides.
2 strips 3-1/2" x 32-1/2". You'll probably trim these because the blocks are a little smaller than 8".

Here's my math---
You can get 168 triangles per Charm Pack (42 x 4).
Each block requires 16 triangles.
That means you get 10 and a half blocks per Charm Pack.
With two packs you get 21 blocks (set in as grid of 20= 4 x 5)
3 packs will give you 31 and a half blocks
4 packs= 42 blocks---Set these in a grid of 6x7 and the quilt without a border finishes to about 48" x 56"

The waiters are ready for the diners at the 1864 Fair in Philadelphia. 
From the Library of Congress

Read more about the Metropolitan Fair Civil War reproduction collection here

15 comments:

  1. What a clever pattern for these great fabrics. I remember my grandmother making Minced Meat Pie, and I wish I had her recipe.

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  2. I love your new fabric and I love that block, think I have something similar to it in one of my books. I love being able to use the charm packs to make half square triangles, and build them into a quilt.

    Debbie

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  3. I'll have to show this pattern to my mother. She use to make "real" mincemeat pie (with meat in it) for her father all the time.

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  4. Love the fabrics, I am using some of them in my Phebe quilt in the stars next to the beautiful birds.

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  5. Beautiful fabric line. One of my favorites you have done.
    Kathie

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  6. wonderful fabric line and block.

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  7. This fabric line has everything I love!

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  8. Barbara, I love this fabric line. Can't wait to get to the store and purchase some. This line has something for everyone in it, with the wide choice of colors. Hope my shop has them all, but that'll just make it more difficult to decide which ones to get!

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  9. These charm packs are not yet available in stores. When I went to several vendors, they said October.
    Can't wait to try this block with the charms.

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  10. Donna---the yardage should be out in October, but the charm packs and other precuts are usually 60 days early so any day.

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  11. I love this fabric line so much that I surely cannot pick out which is my favorite, so the charm packs are a certain purchase for me! I just called Keepsake Quilting in Center Harbor and they don't have them yet, but I'll be watching for them there.

    Thank also for the clever pattern of Mince Pie! I love no-measure designs and am more apt to actually make them.

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  12. and just in case you want to know... traditional mince meat is made with venison (or deer meat as we call it in Maine)and if you are to be really true to tradition you would use only the meat from the neck of the deer (fatty and stringy).

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  13. Thanks for the lovely quilt pattern. I'll be on the lookout for the Metropolitan Fair charm packs to use with it.

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  14. I just came home from The Mothership (Keepsake Quilting's store in Center Harbor, NH). They do not yet have the Metropolitan Fair charm packs. I was told to try the upcoming fall catalog, which I will do!!!! Thank you again for the "no fuss" pattern!

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  15. I may be wrong about availability. I don't have any Charm Packs yet myself. Any day, any day.

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