Quilt Charms
By Laura West Kong

This paper-pieced and beaded charm is quick and easy to make. If you’ve never paper-pieced or beaded much before, this is a good project to introduce you to a new technique. Use the scraps from a favorite quilting project and make a charm to match. Have fun and make a handful of quilt charms to hang in all kinds of places—your digital camera, purse strap, scissors, belt loop, or the ribbon tied round a special gift.

You will need:

-One 1 ¼” square cotton quilting fabric for center square
-Two 1 ¾” squares for outer triangles (cut each 1 ¾” square in half diagonally to make half-square triangles)
-One 1” square wool, wool-blend, or craft felt
-Glue stick
-Sewing threads for machine paper piecing, hand embroidery/quilting, and hand stitching
-Beading thread
-6” of flexible beading wire or tiger tail
-Seed beads (I used size 15, although you can use a larger seed bead such as 10 or 11.)
-4 mm Czech crystal beads
-One crimp bead
-One 4 mm closed jump ring
-One cell phone charm finding
(www.FireMountainGems.com)
-Rotary cutter, ruler, and mat
-Scissors
-Straight stitch sewing machine
-Mini or regular iron
-Needles for hand sewing and beading
-Wire cutters
-Crimping pliers
-Two pairs of small pliers