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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Charm Pack Quilt Tutorial

As promised, here is the tutorial I made for RaeAnn's Charm Pack Quilt. Thanks go to RaeAnn for preparing the fabric squares for me so I could take pictures of them and for sharing the quilt with all of us. It's such a great idea!!! Enjoy!

This method is a fun and easy way to use your 5" Charm Packs that are readily available in nearly every quilt shop. First you'll need to decide how many quilt blocks you want to use in your quilt. RaeAnn's quilt is 10 blocks across by 10 rows down for a total of 100 blocks. So that means she bought 3 Charm packs with at least 34 squares per pack for a total of 102 squares. You can use any number of blocks and rows to make your quilt. Just remember that each 5" Charm Square will make one block.

For the striped center you will determine yardage this way. For example if you have 100 blocks you will need 100 strips cut @ 1 1/2" x 10" just to make it easy. So, that means you will get 4 pieces measuring @ 1 1/2" x 10" per 1 1/2" x 40" strip of fabric. Now divide the number 4 into 100 necessary strips. To put it more simply that means you will need 25 strips to get your 100 smaller strips.

Take one or more 5" squares at a time from your charm pack and cut them from top left corner down to the bottom right corner.

Take one 1 1/2" x 10" strip of a striped fabric for the center of each half square triangle block. Look CLOSELY and you will see that I folded each piece in half and did a finger press.

Now take the triangle and match the pressed marks together. Sew using a 1/4" seam. Press the seams out toward the corners.

Next you will trim the corners.

Use a ruler with a 45 degree angle then line up the markings and then trim excess.

Closer view.

When laying out the rows you will alternate the direction of the blocks to form an "X" or an "O" thus creating a criss cross pattern. Lay out all of your blocks before sewing the rows together. The block measures a bit more than 5 1/4" before all four edges are sewn into a quilt which will then take the measurement to a bit less than 5" x 5".

Here's a look at the "O" pattern.

Here's a look at another charm pack I cut up to make a table runner for the teacher's lunchroom at school. It's really fun to use all the different charm packs out there. You'll have to let me know if you make a quilt using this method. I love seeing your quilt pictures!!! If you have any questions let me know.

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