Hi.  I'm Michele Kuhns from Crayon Box Quilt Studio and I'm very happy to be back at the Moda Bakeshop with my 2nd project. Like so many quilters, I love scrappy quilts I but, unlike some of you that are fine with the random "whatever I put together" look I prefer my scrappy quilts to be "planned".  My quilts visually need to have a nice balance of colors and prints across the entire top.  The idea for this quilt was born out of a "What if" thought that popped into my head one day....."What if" I trimmed a bit off a 4 charm squares, swapped those pieces around and then sewed them back together.  "What if" I then trimmed a bit off each of those pieces, swapped them around again and then sew those bits back together.  This fun planned scrappy quilt was the result.

 

Although the piecing for this quilt is Easy, I've rated this project as Moderate because of the "Shuffle" aspect of creating the blocks.  Careful attention to each step of the shuffling is necessary to achieve the planned scrappy look.

This quilt finishes at 60 1/2" x 60 1/2".

For those of you who might want to make a bigger quilt, additional fabric requirements for other sizes are at the end of this post.

1 Layer Cake or 4 Charm Packs for the blocks. I used this bright and pretty All Weather Friend line by April Rosenthal.

1 1/4 yards sashing/border fabric
4 yards backing fabric
3/4 yards binding fabric

The usual sewing supplies - Rotary cutter, cutting mat, pins, thread, ruler

The quilt's blocks are made up of 4 sub-blocks and each of those sub-blocks are made up of 4 units.

You'll start by making the sub-blocks.

To make a sub-block unit, start by choose any 4 charms. Each sub-block unit should have a variety of colors and prints to achieve the proper planned scrappiness of each completed block.

From each charm slice off  a 1 3/4" piece.  Do this for all 4 charms.The larger piece will measure 3 1/4" x 5".

For Shuffle Round 1, start with the upper left charm and shuffle the smaller pieces clockwise to pair up with a new larger piece.

Double check your sets before sewing.  The success of this block is determined by the placement of the pieces.

Sew each pair together using a normal 1/4" seam.

Press towards the larger side.

This will be your resulting pieces. They each should measure 4 1/2" x 5".

Next take each of the above blocks, turn the smaller side to the be at the top and trim off a 1 3/4" piece from the left.

This is what you will have after each of the trims.

For Shuffle Round 2, swap the smaller pieces diagonally so that each block now has pieces from all 4 fabrics. The left upper small piece gets swapped with the lower right small piece and the upper right small piece gets swapped with the lower left small piece.

Important: before sewing any of these pieces together, turn the small piece around as shown in this picture.  There should be no seams to match up at this point.

This is what each of your groupings should look like.

Again sew each set together using a 1/4" seam.

Press towards the larger section.

Here are your completed sub units. Notice at the moment that the largest print is in the upper left of the block. They should measure 4 1/2" x 4 1/2".

Now comes Shuffle Round 3.  From the units as shown above, swap the upper right unit with the lower right unit and then turn the unit so that the largest print is in the lower right corner.

Next swap the lower left unit and the lower right unit and then turn each so the largest print is as shown below.

This is how your unit placement should look before sewing.

So the top 2 units together and then the bottom 2 units together.

Press them in opposite directions so the seams will nest nicely when you sew the 2 halves together.

Congratulations!  You have completed 1 Charm Swap Shuffle sub-block. This unit measures 8 1/2" x 8 1/2".

Make a total of 36 sub-unit blocks.

Now comes the fun part of shuffling your sub-blocks into 9 groups of 4 sub-blocks each.

To make your quilt blocks take 4 sub-blocks and lay them out as shown, turning all except for the upper left one so that the largest print is on an outside corner. (Very Important!)

Sew the top 2 sub-blocks together, nesting the 1 center seam that meets up and then sew the bottom 2 sub-blocks together the same way.

Finally sew both top and bottom halves together, nesting the seams in the 3 places needed.

This is your finished 16 1/2" x 16 1/2" block.

Arrange your 9 blocks as you wish. For me this usually takes the longest as I like to have a good mix of colors and prints across the entire quilt top.

From your sashing/border fabric, cut (3) WOF strips  3 1/2" wide and then sub-cut them into (6) pieces which are 3 1/2" x 16 1/2" each. Sew 1 piece to the right side of  each of the blocks in column 1 and column 2. Press towards the sashing strip, unless like me you used White and if so, press towards the blocks instead to avoid shadowing.

Next from the sashing/border fabric cut (6) WOF strips 3 1/2" wide.  Join them into one long strip either using the traditional diagonal seam method or using a regular straight seam.  For this quilt I chose to use a straight seam due to the linear nature of the blocks.  Sub-cut the long strip into strips 54 1/2" long.  You will need (4) strips.

Sew 1 strip horizontally to the top of each row and the bottom of the bottom row.  Then sew the rows together.

Lastly from the sashing/border fabric cut (3) WOF strips 3 1/2" wide.  Cut 1 strip in half and then join 1 full strip with 1 half strip.  Make 2.  Trim each strip to 60 1/2" each and then sew one to each side of the quilt top.

Congratulations!  You now have a beautiful planned scrappy quilt top. Quilt as you wish, bind and enjoy.

This quilt finishes at 60 1/2" x 60 1/2".

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and I can't wait to see all the fabulous Charm Pack Shuffle quilts that will be created.  Feel free to email me pictures of your completed quilts at [email protected].

Since I'm Accountant by trade and doing the Math is my thing, here are the fabric requirements for other sizes:

Twin 79 1/2 " x 98 1/2": 20 blocks (80 sub-blocks) = 320 charms, 2 2/3 yards sashing/border fabric, 8 3/4 yards backing fabric, 3/4 yard binding fabric.

Queen 98 1/2" x 98 1/2": 25 blocks (100 sub-blocks = 400 charms, 3 1/4 yards sashing/binding fabric, 8 3/4 yards backing fabric, 1 yard binding fabric

King 117 1/2" x 117 1/2"" 36 blocks (144 sub blocks) = 576 charms, 4 1/4 yards sashing/binding, 10 1/3 yards backing fabric, 1 yard binding fabric

Michele Kuhns

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