You sound as though you had your heart set on the Jelly Rolls. Can you take them back and trade them? The other ideas for the charm packs are great if you just don't have the heart to take them back.

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 ;-)

Check out Moda Bakeshop.com

Don't despair there is always another quilt pattern around the corner and another idea on the board you have a lot of good suggestions so enjoy your squares they are better that worms!

I made the MSQC Window Pane D9P using 2 charm packs and a few extra squares......turned out awesome. Also, my friend made a table topper with Chrismas fabrics and sashed with a rich gold. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZfnR8K9rCs

I would return them.

I want to make this one someday:
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/10/...ars-quilt.html

here's all of their charm pack quilts (some may require other fabric)
http://www.modabakeshop.com/search/label/Charm%20Pack

I like her and her tutorials. :-)

Marysewfun

There are great books called Schnibbles - they have patterns for 10" layer cakes then another corresponding pattern using 5" charm packs - tons of different patterns - I love the books - there are two or three of the series of books. Look up charm pack quilts - you will find a lot of free patterns as well as many books you can purchase.

I am also from this years snowy and cold Minnesota by Duluth. Most of the quilt shops that we have would gladly exchange the charms for jelly rolls. They understand that husbands don't always understand. Good luck