I am fighting mad. My quilting buddy and I got together today to work on a baby quilt for a mommy to be at church and we had picked up a few charm packs from JoAnns. We loved the colors and the patterns in them. Got them open a few days ago and they had two in the pack that looked like they were just thrown in and didn't seem to really go with the other squares, which isn't a big deal because we made it work. well when we went to sew them all together that was when the problems really started to hit the fan. Not only where the squares not the exact size of 5" but they were not all quite square. most were only off by less than 1/8". really frustrating. but when we ironed them they were really messed up because they were cut not in a true square but had some corners that were not 90*. We were really mad about all this then as I am ironing out the fabric trying to get them all in some resemblence of a rectangle, I found that my buddies machine has lost its tension. So now the bottom thread is able to be pulled out. So after about an hour of trying to fix the tension problem I gave up and we are going to get together tomorrow to try and finish up. We have some of them in 4 squares and some on rectangles and some flapping in the wind on their own. This was all done while 4 children ran nuts playing. Their ages are 11 months. 21 months 2 1/2 and 4. Are we crazy or what? hehe

Does anyone else ever have this problem with the charm packs? Not being cut right? or even the right size. As well as missing squares? (we were missing one square out of the 4 packs we got.) I don't think that I will be doing the charm packs again. I will just buy fabric that I like together. Which we have another baby blanket that we are going to be making for a mommy who is 17. (second baby, only good thing is she is married to the daddy of both babies) Don't get me started on this baby blanket.

oh no, that is terrible

Hugs Hugs

thanks for letting us know so it will help all of us!

See you are a teacher, take care and hope you get them fixed!

Wow, how did you sew with all of those kids, you are braver than me!

What brand of charm packs were they? I have used Moda and I have not had any problems with them.

Oi vey!! That sounds crazy. Sorry the charm packs were so messed up. =( I got a jelly roll and the strips didn't seem to be quite accurate either...put that together with the fact that I'm a beginning sewer and my blocks didn't look so hot when I finished 'em.

Hang in there and good luck working on the 2nd quilt!

not only did we sew with the kids underfoot but we had the iron out too. were we crazy or what. Luckily there was a play room with toys and a bunch of movies that we played to keep their attention. we just had to keep an eye on my son who is only 11 months. It was crazy nuts but fun. tomorrow will be easier because we are doing it at my house and I have the toy area gated off from the dinning room where we are going to be sewing.

I don't remember which brand but it had a brownish top to it. It wasn't moda I am pritty sure.

so sorry to hear the problems...but... thanks for the heads up on the charm packs. i'd call Joanns headquarters and ask for compensation on this. Hopefully, they'll send you free stuff to make up for this. E-mail them this letter, they'll probably do all they can to help you, there's sooo many people here to boycott the packs, and they don't wnt that.

I have used a charm pack from Moda - it wasn't as bad as you describe, but still some of the pieces were off a little, not cut on the grain, etc.

I didn't even know Joanns had charm packs . It just sounds like one of those days were you pack it all in and enjoy some nice lemonade :thumbup: And hope for a better tomorrow :wink:

And all those kids ... very brave of both of you !

I never purchased a charm pack from Ja's before - the one I've used from WM though - one fabric ALL the 'charms' were off by about 1/8 of an inch... weird but do-able.