Mini Granny Square Quilt Blocks

 Earlier in the month I made two cute little Granny Square blocks but forgot to share them with you.

Well, you might have noticed them when I shared my Love Blooms Circle quilt back on June 13th.  They were made from some of the scraps.

The idea came about after telling my quilty buddy Judy about Lori Holts new studio tour video. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend taking a look.  Lori has the whole second floor of her new home as her studio...A quilters dream!  I had watched it several months ago.  After sharing the video with Judy I decided to watch it again.  This time the Granny Square quilt on her bed stole my heart and before I knew it, I had the urge to start a new quilt.  Luckily common sense kicked in and it was added to my bucket list.

But I could see no harm in making just one block as a test and a reminder.  Lori's quilt came from her book called Great Grannie Squared.  I'm pretty sure I won this book online years ago but it's such a simple block made from squares I didn't a need for a pattern or taking the time to see if I still owned the book.  I decided to fly by the seat of my pants and just make a block.  

Once I had made the 6.5 inch block the wheels started turning...what if I made a quilt with even smaller blocks?!!  How low can you go?!  

Within no time I had a 3.5 inch little cutie.  If I should decide to make the quilt using the 3" block it would take (529) blocks.  The block has 41 pieces!  Oh yes, I think this will be my next big quilt with little blocks.  Of course, after I finish the Cake Stand Basket Quilt that I haven't worked on in about 2 months.

Making the two blocks into mini quilts was not as easy as I thought it would be.  Putting the binding on tiny quilts is not easy.  Heck, it's not exactly easy on large quilts.

For now, they are pinned to the wall as a reminder of my plans.

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Chocolate covered cherries

As I stood looking at my design wall last night a sudden craving for Chocolate covered Cherries came over me.  To be honest I don't even like cherries( it's a texture thing, I can't stand the way they feel in my mouth, crazy, yes).  The Cherry is spit out leaving the chocolate and delicious creamy center to do its little magical dance on my taste buds.  Brach's brand was the best, that center would just run out like syrup!  YUM!  But they are hard to find these days.  Anyway enough of the daydreaming about food.  Do you see why this wall reminds me of chocolate covered cherries?

It took me about 30 minutes to figure out this block after seeing a picture.  Then last night while doing my normal 2 a.m. insomnia web surf I found this tutorial in Spanish.  I hit the translate and well I'll be darned!  And here I wasted all that quilty brain power.  

They go together quickly.  (4) 10 inch squares make 2 blocks, a positive block and a negative block .  The gingham is the background fabric.  The strip sets below are for one block.

 Layering all the strips sets together and calling on June Taylor to help me with accuracy. Rarely do I  use the Shape Cut, but after I do I think why don't I use this more often? It such a handy tool!

 ZIP, ZIP ,ZIP, ZIP and 5 perfect sets, 1 has been set aside for a possible border.

 Arranged for sewing together.  Cherry in the middle and four little gingham corner pieces.

Making four at a time, chain piecing, takes about 45 and that includes the final pressing of the blocks. These blocks can wait till after I run to town for eggs, coffee creamer, and Chocolate covered cherries! 

~Lea Anne~

Linking up with Freshly Pieced Modern for WIP Wednesday.

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Lots to share DWM

I'm taking momma to the doctor tomorrow, so lets have design wall progress  today.  

After a day and a half of hand stitching the small red circles in place.  This quilt came together quickly.  I took so many pictures!  Luckily for you I picked out just a few.

 Some of the perfect circles didn't come out quite as perfect as I would have liked.  They were perfect before stitching.  What I found is that needles make all the difference.   My first needle of choice was one of those quick threading kind.  Bad choice, the larger eye pulled my circles out of whack.  After changing to applique sharps needle things looked better.  

 If you not familiar with the how to make a perfect circle you can find a tute here.  

 LOVE LOVE LOVE the border fabric.  It took about a month to find just the right color indigo blue to match the blue of the oak and reel block.  I know it looks darker but really its not.  The small print on the blocks makes it appear to be a different shade of blue.    Since the border fabric is such a large print I had to do some fussy cutting on the length of the fabric instead of cutting on the width.  Lots of scraps were made by doing this but the outcome is worth it.  

 I wanted to share this pattern with you but the oak and reel has a copyright.  After searching for hours to find where the pattern, I finally found it in Inspired by Traditions by Kay Mackenzie.  Mines just spruced up a bit with the circles.  The alternating block is just a basic Irish chain block that can be found on my tutorials tab.  

Inspiration has struck and I'm stuck in the darker colors.  Here's what I've made today from a Primitive Gatherings layer cake and some yardage.  Those little squares finish at 1.5.   The red center fabric is from the oak and reel quilt, and don't tell anyone..... but that gingham.....its a baby sheet I scored at the Goodwill for $1.  

 Hopefully I'll have time to shop for the sashing fabric after momma's doctor appointment.

 You know I can't go very long with out playing with the brights.  I made this itty bitty cutie(5.5").  It's a freebie tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts that you can find here.  If you have EQ7 it's one of the basic patterns.   This will become my leaders and enders project.  Some of you may recognize it from Jenny Doans Youtube Tutorial from last week.  Jenny requires you buy her papers and a template to make the quilt.  Red Pepper lets you print it out for free!  I set my printer up for fast printing which makes it use less ink.  Either way it's going to cost something.  

Want more quilty inspirations?  Its just a click away!  Judy at Patchwork Times hosts a link up every Monday morning.  Anyone can enter their blog.  So hop on over, link up, and check out others Design walls. 

~Lea Anne~

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