My personal Great Granny Sew Along

I have finished my Great Granny quilt top.

It is a bed size quilt so now I have to get brave, buy the batting and attempt to machine quilt it on my Bernina QE 750.

I purchased the book by Lori Holt with plans to participate in her sew along.  However, I won a layer cake of Vintage Modern as a prize from the Quilty Fun Sampler Sew Along.  Right away, I decided to skip the Great Granny Sew Along and make the quilt instead.

The first layer cake made 10 blocks, half those needed.  I ordered another layer cake  to make the full 20 blocks.  This also included the cornerstone blocks in the final setting.

It also left a few 10 by 10 inch squares for the 5 inch square within a square border.  When ordering the layer cake online, I also noticed the yardage that Lori designs in fat quarters, ie. a yard of fabric has four different designs printed on it that are 18 X 22 inches.  I ordered two yards in different colorways.  This fabric helped me to have more variety in the border as well as diversity in a couple of the blocks.  I also used this fabric for an easy scrappy binding.

I had enough leftover  2 1/2 inch blocks to make the quilt label in the book.

I was also happy to have the "fat quarter" fabric to make the basket. The orange handle was made from fabric I had on hand.

This was a fun project to embroider.

I love the cheerfulness of the fabric line.

Now I need to piece together the back.  I debated and debated about the backing and I finally just took my 50% of coupon to JoAnn's for more white Kona cotton.  You can't beat that price for the quality.

I'm making a bunch of pinwheel blocks from the corners of the square in a square blocks in the border.  When I marked the sewing lines for the squares, I also marked another line 1/2 inch away and sewed it as well, then cut through the middle which left me with a pile of half square triangles with four that matched for perfect pinwheels.  I am currently working on a little quilt using those blocks.

With the use of the layer cakes, this quilt had little waste.  I needed 2 1/2 inch squares and 5 inch squares and the 10 inch pieces of fabric were perfect for this scrappy looking quilt.  Now I'm getting up the courage to tackle the quilting!