Christmas dinner always takes center stage, but my favorite Christmas meal is breakfast. After opening gifts, wouldn’t it be nice to sit down to breakfast with your family at a table decorated with these pretty chargers? They look a lot more difficult than they really are, thanks to strip piecing and a Dresden ruler.
Are you ready to learn how to make them? Here we go…
to make four chargers:
eight fat quarters of coordinating print fabrics
one yard fabric for backs
1/2 yard fabric for binding
16″ round place mat interfacing or one yard fusible fleece or quilt batting
cardboard or template plastic (optional)
an EZ Dresden ruler
cutting mat and rotary cutter
basic sewing supplies
*NOTE: the chargers are not intended to be identical – each one is unique. You can make them all the same by using four fat quarters for the piecing and the other four fat quarters for the backs.
CUTTING:
For each charger, cut three 2″ strips from each of four of the fat quarters. Be sure to cut them crosswise to the selvage. It looks best to alternate light, dark, light, dark.
Cut a 6″ circle for the center.
Out of the cardboard or template plastic, cut a 5″ circle. I find that a cereal box works well!
Sew the four different strips together along the long edge to create a strip set. Press all the seams in the same direction (you will thank me for this later!) Repeat so that you have two identical strip sets. The remaining four strips will be used later.
Using the interfacing circle as a guide, cut a 16″ circle from your backing fabric. Layer the back, interfacing and top to make a sandwich. With a hot steam iron, fuse the three together. (if using quilt batting or fleece, pin baste together).
For the center, I machine appliqued the circle. This is my fool-proof method of making a perfect circle applique:
Using the 6″ fabric circle, hand sew a running stitch 1/4″ from the edge around the circle. Leave a tail for gathering.
Center the 5″ template over the circle and pull on the thread to gather. I use my cereal box template with the printed side up. It has a coating on it that enables me to iron on top of it. Hold the thread tail tight and press the edges.
Center the circle over the pieced charger. This is where it is helpful to be using fusible interfacing because you can fuse it in place before stitching. Then edge stitch all around the center circle.
I also stitched around the outer edge of each circular seam.
All that is left is the binding. We quilters are used to using bindings cut on the straight of grain, but to get the binding to nicely hug the curve, it needs to be cut on the bias. I cut two 2 1/4″ bias strips from my half yard piece of binding fabric. If you are new to bias quilt bindings, I found a good tutorial by Jennifer at That Girl That Quilt. Her tutorial is for rounded corners on a square quilt, but the technique is the same as you would use here.
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| Front and back |
Follow the same steps for additional chargers, using four different fabrics for each one. You can make four identical chargers from four fat quarters. You will need to cut carefully to get nine 2″ strips from each fat quarter. Sew together 9 identical strip sets which will each yield 9 wedges. That gives you 81 and you need 80 to make four chargers.
For a different look, I used a scrap of red fabric on this one to make a solid center. You could also fussy cut the center for another look.
Even though these two chargers are made from different fabrics, they still go together thanks to the repetition of colors and patterns and matching bindings.
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. If you should make them, be sure to send me pictures, I love to see what you all are doing!!
Happy Sewing,
Tessa Marie




















Welcome to my blog! Here is where I share my love of sewing, quilting and fabric. This blog is the result of all the encouragement and support I get from you, dear readers, and for that I thank you from the bottom of my heart!! 











These are so cute and your tutorial is so well done! I love the striped binding too. I’ll have to print it out and put it on my “to do” list. Thank you!
Julie @ The Crafty Quilter
Awesome tutorial Tessa! Great pics and very clear. I am going to make some of these. Will be sharing something for the Challenge too. I made the mistake of sewing some wedges before, like you said not too, and learned the hard way! Dis-as-ter! Will attempt again and hopefully a success:)
These are really pretty and so fun for the holidays. That placemat interfacing is new to me – intriguing! Great tutorial, and I’m pinning it to my Pinterest board right now!
Wow,it looks fantastic.Thanks!
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Great tutorial, Tessa! I think I’ll make these soon!
These are so pretty! I am really going to have to make some of these pronto! Thanks for putting together such a great project!
Wonderful tutorial. Love the charger.
My goodness – they look amazing! Thanks for sharing. Following from Sew Cute Tuesday Linky Party.
I love your project! Your tutorial is excellent, with great pictures! Thanks for sharing this great idea with us!
Susie
They turned out beautifully Tessa! I love them and I’m seriously thinking about making some for my mom this Christmas. We always have a huge dinner at her house on Christmas Eve and these would be so pretty! I missed being with y’all in the Mountains, I know you had a wonderful time! Btw, I found some wonderful Tilda fabric in US, and if I can get my hands on it, I’m sending some your way! You will love it! Big XO’s, Kim
EEEP! I loves me some Tilda!! You are the BEST!!
Super cute Tessa!!
Amanda
Cute little pattern – thanks for sharing!
Tessa ……just love these Chargers. Absolutely gorgeous and fabulous tutorial. Thanks for sharing…………Marie
these are great. I would love to make these for a round table I have. thanks for sharing.
Looks great! Thanks for sharing.
Oh how cute!!!
These are the cutest… and so unique. It helps that I LOVE that fabric line too! I’m pinning this one!
Cuuuuute!!! And awesome tutorial
Those are gorgeous! I think even a beginner like me can do this! (I just need to get a Dresden ruler!) Saving this link/tutorial to my favorites. Thank you soooooooo much for sharing this!!
Thanks Paula! I probably should have mentioned that the EZ Dresden ruler is available at local quilt shops, on-line and JoAnn (with a coupon of course!)