mayday

Has anyone made/making a charm quilt?/ if so would be very grateful for any tips ,was HOPING to do one in tumbling blocks. thanks

Quilter7x

I have been thinking about taking a charm pack and making half square triangles with it for a table runner. Is that the kind of idea you're looking for?

MNQuilter

Eddie has made quite a few quilts using charm packs and jelly rolls. If yougo to user list at the top and then type his name in, it will pull up his profile. You can then look under his topics and see pictures of his quilts.

laadw

I have made tons of charm quilts - I love them. Charm packs usually come with 40 pieces. You can make a nice size lap quilt out of 1 pack or use 2 to get a bigger quilt. You can use 2 packs to make a stacked coin quilt. If you would like to see photos of some of the quilts I have made with charm packs I have them on my blog. Another good site to look at is ModaBakeShop.com.

MadQuilter

If you cut the charm cuts down to be the correct angle for the tumbling block, you lose a bit of fabric and the pieced method (without inset seams) does not lend itself to charm cuts either.

The charm (or I SPY) pieces look great with a basic contrasting borders or as snowball blocks.

mayday

thanks for all the replies, I understood that it required hundreds of different pieces of material sewn together in either tumble block/squares or diamonds --am a COMPLETE novice and cannot seem to find any patterns/instructions!!

athenagwis

This tutorial won't work with charms, but here is a SUPER easy way to make tumbling blocks - No inset seams and no tons of little diamonds!! I am going to try this method when I make one ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWpSETMbws4

Cheers!
Rachel

sew4fun

I am making one that is a small triangle. Think they call it a thousand pyramids. But there are many more pieces then that. I have been working on it over 4 yrs. A true charm quilt does not have a repeat of fabric and that is what I am trying to do with this. I have just started cutting two other ones that are the tumbler pattern and the cracker. I have not tried the tumbling block though. One tip is you need to try to have all the pieces cut before you start so you can lay them out before you start. I belonged to a group that exchanged 6 inch blocks and that is how I got so many different prints.

mayday

thanks for reply and tips, I did know that no two fabrics should be the same and so far have amassed just over 200 pieces. You say cut them all out first---------can I not merely get 3 pieces that "go" together [including the light one] and then cut and piece, then having eventually many reeady tumble blocks OR is this wrong.?

Dragonfly Nana

There really is no "wrong" way. If you want to repeat colors you can. "charm" was an old fashioned way of saying leftovers.