How to make 4 patches from 5″ charm pack squares
I LOVE 4 patches. But even I have to admit that sometimes cutting all of these little 2.5-3″ squares just to sew them back together again seems maddening! That’s why I love this sewing hack to make 40 beautiful 4 patch blocks using 1 charm pack (5″ squares). If you don’t have a charm pack handy, check out my tutorial on how to make perfect 4 patch blocks!
Now…Let’s get started!
Get your fabrics and supplies together
In addition to your 5″ pre-cut fabric squares and your sewing machine, you’ll also need a few basic sewing supplies:
Quilting rulers in varying sizes (you’ll need a ruler at least 5″ square for this project)
Thread (I prefer Aurifil 50wt in White for piecing blocks)
Iron/ironing board/wool pressing mat (I love my Oliso Mini Project iron and my wool pressing mat)
Rotary cutter
Seam ripper (you just never know)
Charm Pack Squares
This method of making 4 patch squares uses 1 pack of 5″ charm squares. Let’s get basic here for one bit and talk about charm packs. I don’t usually buy pre-cuts, but when I do, it’s because I LOVE getting every print in a particular collection! A charm pack contains (42) 5″ pre-cut squares usually containing several prints in a particular collection.
For this tutorial, I am using the “Tiny Treaters” collection from Riley Blake. The whole fabric collection is adorable, so I just couldn’t resist getting a charm pack!
Grab your fabric and let’s go!
With a charm pack, I like to separate out each square by color family, so I can get a proper mix of colors in my project. I am going to walk you through making one 4 patch block, so you will need (4) 5″ squares. You can see that I’ve chosen a good mix of colors.
If you are utilizing an entire charm pack for this project, you will use 40 of the squares in the pack and you will have 2 leftover. Set these aside for another project.
Now, match your top row of two blocks right sides together and repeat for the bottom row. Line up your edges and pin together. We will be sewing on the outside edges of our squares, so I usually pin about an 1″ or more from the edge so that I don’t need to remove the pins as I sew. This also makes it easier to chain piece these! Sure makes the project come together much faster as well!
Now sew ¼” away from both the left and right sides of the squares. Remove the pins. Your blocks will look like this.
Here’s a closer look…this may be strange to you, but stay with me!
Now, using a quilting ruler, measure 2.5″ from the left edge to find the center of your square and cut. I love using my Perfect 5 Ruler from Creative Grids because it has the lines clearly marked and it’s easy to line up when you are using smaller squares like these charm packs.
Repeat with the 2nd set of squares. Open up your pieces. Now you have 4 rectangle units. Press to the darker fabrics.
Match up two of the opposite fabrics, place right sides together and nest your seams. You will have 2 sets again.
With this method, pinning really ensures that your seams stay nested and lined up. I like to nest my seams on one edge, pin that edge, then move to the middle. I peek to make sure my seams are nested and are lined up. Then pin again. Move to the outside edge, nest your seams and pin again.
I’ll end up with a minimum of 3 pins…One in the middle where the seams nest to secure the center point and then pin on the each side where your seams nest.
Peeking inside to make sure those seams are nested. This equals perfect center points!
We are going to repeat the process that we did earlier. Sew ¼” away on the left and right sides of your squares.
Remove your pins and cut down the middle of the square.
The big reveal
Like magic! Open up your squares and you should have 4 beautiful 4-patch blocks with perfect center points!
Press seams to the darker fabrics or open to reduce bulk!! Trim if necessary. Sometimes pinked edges can get a bit wonky, so I like to trim up my edges!
Not only did we make these adorable 4 patch blocks, but they all end up being different as well!
One charm pack will yield 40 4-patch blocks. You will have 2 5″ squares leftover.
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