{"id":67594,"date":"2025-08-26T07:08:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T14:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/?p=67594"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:18:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T22:18:19","slug":"stupid-charm-squares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/stupid-charm-squares\/","title":{"rendered":"Stupid Charm Squares"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I struggled with the <a href=\"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/starting-chain-link\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chain Link<\/a> quilt for a number of reasons. Once was the charm square sizes. Charm squares are supposed to be 5&#8243;, right? The charm squares for Chain Link were &#8220;about&#8221; 5 inches. Some were less and some were more.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_67592\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-67592\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250815_122730_wm-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-67592\" src=\"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250815_122730_wm-sm-300x253.jpg\" alt=\"What I do to Charm Squares\" width=\"300\" height=\"253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250815_122730_wm-sm-300x253.jpg 300w, https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250815_122730_wm-sm-768x648.jpg 768w, https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20250815_122730_wm-sm.jpg 951w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 85vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-67592\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">What I do to Charm Squares<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I try not to buy pre-cuts for this reason, but cutting charms into 2.5 inch squares is a quick way to make 16 patches.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t wash the Moda Grunge charms I bought recently even though I normally do. I happened to measure the first stack before I started to cut them up. I found they were larger than 5 inches. So I trimmed them, then cut them into 4 pieces. Why can&#8217;t charm squares be 5 inches?<\/p>\n<p>I really think that cutting accurately is key. Having charm squares that are touted as being 5 inches NOT be 5 inches is false advertising. It also leads to a lot of problems:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>designers assume 5 inches and write patterns for 5 inch squares<\/li>\n<li>there is an implicit suggestion not to wash the charm squares&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>starting with an inaccurate size compounds problems across the quilt<\/li>\n<li>the above affects a quilt&#8217;s outcome and can affect the quiltmaking experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I buy fabric to use. If pre-cuts are primarily made to look pretty on a shelf, they should be marketed that way. My advice: cut your own charm squares!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I struggled with the Chain Link quilt for a number of reasons. Once was the charm square sizes. Charm squares are supposed to be 5&#8243;, right? The charm squares for Chain Link were &#8220;about&#8221; 5 inches. Some were less and some were more.&nbsp; I try not to buy pre-cuts for this reason, but cutting charms &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/stupid-charm-squares\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Stupid Charm Squares&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[315,57],"class_list":["post-67594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-538","tag-fabric","tag-special-whine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67594"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67611,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67594\/revisions\/67611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}