Wow, lots of activity yesterdya, sorry I missed it all. I had been to an all day embroidery workshop on Thursday and taught a mystery one-day class at my LQS on Friday, so was really exhausted yesterday. Read and puttered all day yesterday, was not at all productive!
Siodach, yes you can use strings for the 6-1/2" center, but I don't think you will be able to use strings for the rest of the quilt. Well, MAYBE in week 4 you could use strings again, you will have to look at the clue and decide what you want to do. Would that work for you?
Grammahunt, making the amount for two tops would give you enough for a nice sized quilt if you wanted a bigger one.
Sunrise, yes, making a 4-patch of your charms and then trimming to 6-1/2" would by far be the quickest way to go.
So nice to see all the returning faces, it lets me know you like my little mysteries! There are also some silent returnees (is that a word?) who I haven't seen posting, but got a PM from a few of you. And lots of new faces, too, I hope you'll have fun on this ride, we are a great bunch to travel with, as you can see already from all the chatter.