Charm Quilts. I Love to Make Them!

Here are pictures of 3 Charm Quilts I have completed over the years. I have probably another 8 in various states of completion. I am a quilter who learned all the basics but took years to be able to choose fabrics for planned quilts. We always wanted to be sure to pick colors and patterns that went together. In the 80's I had the chance to join a group that would make Charm quilts. What was really nice was that we traded fabrics at our monthly meetings. There were 14 in our group and we traded 5--6 inch squares each month with each member of the group. I would cut 14 squares from each of 5 fabrics ( I have a stash that won't stop so I didn't have to buy any fabric) as did every one else. We would each pass our squares (a total of 70) out to the other members. When we were done passing we had 70 to take home. Multiply those months by a year and we ended up with almost a thousand different fabric squares than the ones we originally brought to trade. That first group started in 1987 and did last about one year. I made the diamond quilt above at that time. Every diamond a different fabric.
In 1993 some quilters in our guild wanted to start a charm trading group again and of course I joined again. We followed the same rules of trading and I accumulated more charm squares. I realized that I could get more than one shape out of the square. I cut a triangle, rectangle, and a square. I finished the triangle quilt below but the square and rectangle quilts are still in progress. That group lasted for 3 years.
In 2004 another Charm group formed and of course I joined it. I am working on quilts from those tradings. Haven't finished any of those yet.
I've always hand pieced my charm quilts so there is a lot of time involved.
The quilt below, I made for a millennium challenge for our quilt guild. There were many different styles of quilts, but because I liked charm quilts so much I decided on a 2000 piece quilt. I used 2" squares in the trip around the world pattern. I will never do anything like that again!