Charm quilts.

In 2007, a group of us, eight quilting friends decided to do a charm swop.

Once a month we got together, with the colour from that month, with ten fat quarters each. It could be all the values from light to dark.  We would then make sure we did not have duplicates (only had two in the thirteen months of the charm swop).  Then the fun part, we would spend the morning cutting all our fabric into six inch squares, plus a small square of fabric for our folders.  We pasted the small samples under the person's name in a row in the folder.  This way we knew who gave us, which piece.  After cutting the fabrics each person would get their eighty squares of fabric, ie.  red, blue, green, purple, light, yellow, novelty, plaid, black,  It is a good stash buster and an incredible way to add variety in a big way to a fabric collection.

The Fabrics.

The Shape.

The Charms.

The Pattern.

It is from Better Homes and Gardens, American Patchwork and Quilting, magazine October 1996.  The lights and darks are in two paper bags, the charms is pulled out, one dark and one light at a time.
They are sewn, in this order, as they come out the bag.  It is interesting to see where the charms end up.  No planning involved.
We may have started with the exact fabrics, each of us used a different pattern.

Leftover fabrics, what else can be created with this fabric?.

Looking at patterns you want to create, can you use the leftovers?  From the six inch squares of charm fabrics, there is a lot of scope to make almost another charm quilt.  One can create a nickel quilt with it.  A postage stamp quilt, made just with squares.  The possibilities are endless.