My sincere thanks to everyone who responded! You are the BEST!
I was disappointed (but did my best to hide it) when I opened charms instead of jelly rolls (for which I had been collecting patterns). I quickly realized that my husband didn't know the difference. He had done the best he could, and his gift was very loving.
You all made the difference! Thanks to you, I'm now very excited about making quilts with these charm packs!
Working from your suggestions, I spent several hours online today checking out your resources and following the links. After bookmarking a number of great sites, I concluded by ordering all of Pat Speth's books! (Fortunately, my husband and I have developed a very acceptable "to him, from him"/"to me, from me" tradition, so this won't be a problem.)
Again, THANK YOU!!! I can't imagine what "better advice" would even look like!
FWIW, we're Xmas Eve celebrators, like most northern Europeans. But we live in Minnesota, which used to be in Scandinavia ;-)