Celebrate 250 with a Charm-Friendly Quilt Design in EQ8

6/20/2026

One of the habits I've developed over my many years of quilting is cutting leftover fabric into 5" squares. Along the way, I've also collected quite a few books devoted to quilts made from these versatile squares. One of my longtime favorites is Nickel Quilts by Pat Speth and Charlene Thode.

For today's EQ8 tutorial, I decided to combine my love of 5" squares with another design celebrating America's 250th anniversary.

The result is a patriotic quilt that can be pieced almost entirely from 5" charm squares. The only exception is the binding.

For this sample, I used the American Valor fabric collection by Cheryl Haynes for Benartex. The rich reds, blues, and backgrounds work beautifully in this design. Of course, if you already have a collection of red, blue, and background charm squares in your stash, you can easily create your own version.

Designing the Blocks

Charm Friendly Block 14" x 14"

This quilt uses two simple blocks: a feature block and a pieced sashing block.

The main block is a star-within-a-star design.

When the blocks are combined with the sashing and cornerstones, a third star emerges across the quilt surface, creating an eye-catching secondary design.

Both blocks can be drafted using EasyDraw in Electric Quilt 8.

For the feature block, I began with an 8" block based on an 8 x 8 grid. After drafting the block, I increased the block size to 14" on the Quilt Worktable. This size makes excellent use of 5" charm squares while minimizing waste.

The second block is used in the sashing. It is constructed from 4" x 2½" rectangles, which can also be cut from charm squares.

Charm Friendly 14 x 2 Sashing

Designing the Quilt

On the Quilt Worktable, start a new Horizontal Layout quilt.

Set the layout to 3 blocks across and 3 blocks down. Feel free to adjust the number of blocks to create a quilt size that suits your needs. If you plan to use charm squares, however, keep the block size at a finished 14".

Under Finished Size of Sashing, turn on Include Sash Border and set the width to 2".

Next, move to the Borders tab. Add a ½" mitered border. This creates the appearance of a finished binding in your design and is the only component that cannot be cut from charm squares.

On the Design tab, place the two blocks into the quilt layout. Rotate the vertical sashing blocks as needed and experiment with color placement until you're happy with the design.

When finished, don't forget to Add to Sketchbook to save your quilt.

Charm Friendly Celebrate 250 Quilt

Charm Friendly 250 Celebration Video Tutorial

Watch the step-by-step video below to learn how to recreate this quilt using Electric Quilt 8.

Ready to Design Your Own Pre-Cut Quilts with EQ8?
Special Class Offering

If you enjoy working with charm packs, jelly rolls, layer cakes, and other pre-cuts, you'll love my Working with Pre-Cuts in EQ8 class.

This hands-on design class combines practical quilt-making strategies with creative design exploration, helping you turn pre-cut collections into original quilt designs.

In This One-Month Class You'll Learn How To:

Design quilts that maximize the fabrics in your pre-cut collections
Create customized cutting charts for your designs
Understand how fabric dimensions influence design decisions
Develop original blocks and layouts from simple pre-cut units
Create your own variations of popular quilt styles
Make better use of fabric already in your stash
Use EQ8 as a true design tool rather than simply a pattern viewer

We'll Work With:

Jelly Rolls and other 2½" strip collections
Charm Packs and Nickel Squares
Layer Cakes and 10" square collections
Fat Quarter Bundles
Fat Eighth Bundles

Each lesson builds on the previous one, giving you the skills and confidence to create original quilt designs using virtually any pre-cut collection.

Enrollment is currently open through June 30, 2026.

The class is on sale now for $53 (regularly $73).

If you're ready to get more value from your pre-cuts and discover new ways to design with EQ8, click below for all the details.

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