Simply Charming
July 26, 2007 11:16AM | Filed Under Technique:Piecing |
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On one of the quilting lists that I belong to, some one asked “What does one do with 5″ (or other sized) charm squares, that come along with various fabric club memberships, fabric packs and the like?” Here is my response:
First of all, I would sort the fabric squares into broadly compatible “families” such as oriental fabrics; soft florals; novelties and so on. (I love scrap quilts but in my view not all fabrics belong together in the same quilt. For example, I would not put a bright lime green square with a madder red reproduction print.) Then sort each family into “darker” and “lighter” piles.
I don’t like to fuss too much with further cutting of 5″ charm squares. Here are two minimum-fuss approaches:
- HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES - take one dark square and one light square. Draw a diagonal line from one corner to another on the back of one of the squares and put right sides together. Stitch a 1/4in seam along either side of the drawn diagonal line. Using a rotary cutter, cut along the drawn line and open out to form two half square triangles.
Because fabric clubs seem to have a very flexible! definition of 5″, don’t worry too much about measuring the squares precisely to start off with. Instead,I just stack them up in pairs; sew the half-square triangles and trim them all to be a uniform size. This can be very therapeutic.
According to Judy Hooworth and Margaret Rolfe in their excellent book Spectacular Scraps, there are no less than 256 ways that four HST units can be arranged to make different four-patch blocks. This gives you plenty of options!
- SIMPLE RECTANGLES - another Margaret Rolfe book (this time with Judy Turner), Successful Scrap Quilts shows all sorts of fantastic design possibilities using simple rectangles. A five inch square will yield two 2 1/2in x 4 1/2in rectangles. My quilt Technicolour Dreaming shows a scrap quilt made from some 5″ bright charm squares:
There are two books devoted to nickel (5 inch) charms. Nickel quilts and More nickel quilts by Pat Speth.
Comment by Amy — July 26, 2007 9:10 PM#
Yes, I am familiar with the Nickel Quilts book and have mentioned it before on this blog. However, many of the patterns in this book involve more fiddling than I often have the energy for. Also, the person asking the question on the mailing list noted “I know that there have been books/patterns published about them [5 inch squares] which often [feature strips of the same fabric rather than a truly scrappy approach suggesting that they] require you to have more than one square of each colour, which I never seem to have”.
My suggestions were put forward as a low-fuss alternative.
Comment by Brenda — July 26, 2007 10:45 PM#
those (Aussie) books are two of my favorites. I have succombed to a couple of packs of charm squares recently as a cheap way to dip into new Moda collections that I was intrigued by — but I hadn’t figure out what to do with them yet. I’ll have to go pull Margaret Rolfe off the bookshelf! thanks.
Comment by floribunda — July 27, 2007 10:39 AM#
I’ve made 3 simple quilts from 5″ squares. Not one piece of fabric was duplicated. One I stacked pairs together and slashed on a diagonal, using 4 different angles in the quilt. The second I used the shabby method and joined all the squares with the seams out and snipped. The third I used the four patch idea with narrow sashings within a block and wider sashing separating the blocks. I’m now letting my 5″ squares build up again for another quilt down the track.
Comment by narelle — July 28, 2007 11:03 AM#
I started out quilting with these charm packs and the Nickel Quilt book but was very frustrated with my inabilty to match my points. I realied later that the squares were not exact 5 inches so I agree that the trimming stage is vital. Of course my points still do not always match but thats another story!
Comment by Helen — August 3, 2007 2:46 AM#