Granny Square Quilt in Progress

I decided to tackle making a granny square unlike any I’ve made before. If you’ve read a lot from me before, you know I like granny squares and chain quilts of all kinds.

Here are the ones I’ve made to date.

However, the one type of granny square quilt I’ve not shown is this most simple design. Here are a couple of layouts - the first one with colorful sashing and cornerstones and the second one is all white.

I’ve seen granny square quilts around for a long time - and this simple design is the most common. And the way I’m making this one, I’m not trimming down a colorful square but rather just a white one which will border all of them.

I just realized that as I sit in my mom’s house here in Florida that maybe I never showed you the final quilt finished! I will have to rectify that situation!

(I did make one of these a couple of years ago using a fat quarter bundle and I absolutely love it!)

When I first learned crochet, the granny square was the first block I made. I enjoyed making them when I was 12 and haven’t really done a lot of it since I was in college. Why? Well, working with that acrylic yarn in Florida just wasn’t that much fun. Oh, I did make ourselves a popcorn stitch afghan when I was first married - the first year - but since then, not much. Maybe if I have to spend a lot of hours in the car any time soon, I may pick them up again. Could be kind of fun.

So, you will see me, possibly over several months, working on this one - both in a 6.5” and a 12.5” size. I have been cutting the squares and plan on this being an “over the long haul” type project/projects. As usual, however, when I do these, I work on them gradually and then when I see myself getting close to being done, I tend to focus exclusively on them. However, with these, I will probably work on them from time to time - say 4-10 blocks and then put it away. I have other things to do and I know these will be slow.

not trimmed down yet

I think I will use a 13x14 layout for the granny square quilt using the 6.5” blocks. That is a a LOT of blocks!

If I go for a 7x8 layout for the larger blocks, that is still a fair few - a total of 56 blocks. At least I won’t be trimming any of them off at the end by putting them on on point. These will not be on point. It will be a simple straight set layout with sashing and cornerstones.

 

Here is my container/baggie of blocks so far. This is a 3 liter bag.

 

This is my stack of little 1.5” squares already divvied up to work on for each block. In this container I had laid out about 27 blocks, I think it was.

At first I was going to put each set in a baggie, but then I decided that was too much work and unnecessary, so I just stacked them carefully and put another box inside that one to hold things in place until I want to work on them. The little 6.5” ones are a fun diversion or change after I’ve been working on something else.

For these blocks you need a group of 1, 4, 8, and 12 squares that are all identical respectively.

Plus a lot of little 1.5”x 2.5” white strips to put on the ends. This will allow you have excess so you can trim the blocks down to 6.5”. I haven’t started the 12.5” blocks (to be trimmed to 12”) but I’m sure I’ll need a bigger block there as well .

The above box has stacks of those combinations in each stack.

I am using my Lori Holt fabrics or similar colorwise. I have been cutting down the leftovers from the various quilt tops I’ve been making in these bright and happy colors.

I will write about the progress here every once in a while - when I have enough to report on. I will make 12” and 6” blocks from time to time. I really don’t know how long this will take since I only have about 10 blocks done now and I need 182 blocks unless I choose to put an outer border on and then I can eliminate a round of the blocks.

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Becky Petersen3 Comments