Welcome to the Southern Charm Quilts blog. My name is Melanie Traylor. I’m a mom and wife and have been a quilter since 2008. As my job title I like to say that I make quilts, find new homes for quilts, teach others to quilt, design quilt patterns, host quilt alongs and have a fabric shop called Meander + Make. It’s a bit of a patchwork as you can see (pun intended).
You might be looking for…
- You can view all of my quilts here
- My fabric shop is here
- My quilt patterns are located here
- All of my tutorials are here
- You’ll find all my quilt alongs right here
- I’m on Instagram here, and very social there
- The best place to keep up with me is the newsletter, you can subscribe here
Most Visited Blog Posts
- A Scrappy Low Volume Background Guide
- Free Quilt Patterns
- A Guide for the Beginner + Tips from Experienced Quilters
- How to make a hexagon quilt in 5 different sizes – Free Quilt Pattern
- Anthologie Quilt (quilt reveal)
- Thread for Quilters
- How To Choose Fabric for your quilt
- The Rescue Quilts #3
- Dresden Making
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you pre-wash your fabrics? No. If you did they would shrink a smidgen and rob you of that crinkly goodness on your quilt after you wash and dry it. That said, there’s always going to be a handful of quilters that do pre-wash. The only time I do is when I’m making clothing.
What kind of sewing machine do you use? All of my piecing is done on a Juki 2000qi and all of my quilting is done on a Bernina 550QE (discontinued, but comparable to this machine). The Juki 2000 and 2010 are both very popular sewing machines for quilters. The Juki can also quilt, but I just prefer to use the Bernina for this purpose as it has that stitch regulator and makes quilting much smoother.
Where do you get your fabrics? I have a fabric shop here called Meander + Make that I opened up early 2019.
What patterns of yours would be best for a beginner? The first one that comes to mind is Good Girl, because it is the easiest of my patterns and if you can sew a straight line, you can make this quilt top. Migration is another great pattern for a beginner.
What is the best advice you can offer to a beginner? There is a lot of learning in failing and don’t expect too much in the beginning. Practically, I would say to get your seam allowance as close to perfect as you can get (IT MATTERS) and to know that exactness when cutting will save you a lot of frustrating moments.
Do you offer anything special for beginner quilters? I have my Patchwork + Make class made especially for beginner quilters. There’s also this post.
Do you quilt your quilts on a domestic or a longarm? The majority of my quilts are quilted by me on a domestic, though occasionally I will get to send one off to a longarmer. I do not longarm myself.
Do you have any tips for putting fabrics together? I have a post talking about three methods for choosing fabrics for your quilt here. I have a post about my scrappy backgrounds here.
What do you mean by “scrappy”? Here’s a post about that.
I need help with half square triangles. Years ago, I obsessed over HSTs because they are a common foundation block. I have a ritual for them, you’ll find that here.
Feel free to email me with questions if you need to. I try to respond as quickly as I can, but know that I’m a real person over here and just do the best I can.
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