Sunday, February 21, 2016

Nifty Nines Quilt-Along - Great Granny Grunt!

Hi, all!

Welcome to Week Four of the Nifty Nines Quilt-Along!  I imagine you are wondering about the title of this blogpost - we have a local newscaster in the Nashville area who says "great granny grunt" when something is just over the top or ridiculous - and that's how I felt while trying to take pictures of today's quilt!


Apparently, in Tennessee we aren't allowed to have nice sunny windless days - it's either cloudy and still or sunny and windy!


These pictures were actually taken under the quilt - it was flying horizontally!


But here's a picture taken on my design wall so you can see the layout of this week's design.  As you can see, it's actually an oversized granny square block - so the name Great Granny Grunt fits perfectly!  Here's the tutorial for this quilt.

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Nifty Nines Quilt-Along
Great Granny Grunt

Size - Approx. 60” x 60”
All seams are 1/4”

Fabric Requirements:

Light background fabric - 2 yards  
Cut:  37 6.5” squares

Dark background fabric - 1 5/8 yards. 
Cut:         20 6.5” squares
          6 9.75” squares (cut twice on the diagonal for setting triangles)
          2 5.25” squares (cut once on the diagonal for setting corners)

Darker scraps or a mix of fabrics totaling approximately 1 1/8 yds.  
Cut:       252 2.5” squares

FYI - this pattern is fat-quarter friendly! If you don’t have a stash of scraps, a fat quarter will yield 48 2.5” squares - more than enough for the 28 nine-patch blocks in this quilt.  So nine fat quarters will provide you with enough fabric for your 2.5” squares, or you can mix it up and use more to make your blocks different!

Block Construction:

This quilt is comprised of three blocks.

Block A looks like this: 

          

Easiest block ever, right?  Just a 6.5” square of your lighter background material.  You will need 37 of these.

Block B looks like this: 

          

Block B is a 6.5” square of your darker background material.  You will need 20 of these.

Block C looks like this: 

           

Block C is a simple 9-patch, made of all scrappy fabrics cut in 2.5” squares.  Make 28.  Trim to 6.5” if needed.

If you’ve completed your cutting, you should also have 24 setting triangles and 4 setting corners from your darker background fabric.

Quilt Construction

This quilt is set out on point, so it helps to lay it all out before beginning to assemble the quilt.  Here’s a picture of the full layout of the quilt… 


Because this quilt is basically just an oversized granny square block, it is easiest to start laying it out from the center.  Begin with an A Block (light background) in the center.  Next, lay four B Blocks (dark background) touching each of the four sides of the A Block.  Your next ring will consist of nine C Blocks (nine-patch blocks).  

Lay another three rings in the same sequence (light, dark, nine-patch).  Lay one more ring of the light background squares. 

Now you will use your dark background setting triangles to square off the edges of the quilt, and your dark background setting corners to finish the corners.

Assemble the quilt in diagonal strips, sew the strips together, and you’re done!

Quilt as desired!

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I hope you'll enjoy this week's addition to the Nifty Nines Quilt-Along - I'd love to see pictures of your creations if you use the pattern!  You can post your pics on the Flickr group any time.  Here's Susan's version of the Lattice Play quilt - so pretty!  I love her color choices...

Nifty nines lattice with teal background, part of rows assembled.

So post your pics and strut your stuff!  

And remember - if you'd like a PDF copy of today's quilt pattern sent to you, just leave your email address in a comment below!  And for those of you who have emailed me this week but haven't received yours, I apologize - I had some internet problems this week that kept me from answering my email promptly.  I'm hoping to have everyone answered sometime today!

See you next week with Nifty Nines Quilt number five!!

Hugs!

Sarah

Friday, February 19, 2016

Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? A Little Bit of This And That...

Hi, all!

It's Friday again!  It's warm outside, and the sun is shining!!  That's definitely worth a whoop whoop - I hope you're enjoying something similar wherever you are.  Are you ready to get your craft-y whoop whoop on?  Let's get started!


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First up, let's do a little whooping for 
Savannah's Sweet 16 Sock Drive!  


As of two days ago, the count of socks received was 10,842!! The sock drive runs through next Monday, and I can't wait to see the final total.  You can follow the progress on her Facebook Page - Savannah's Sweet 16 Sock Drive!

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On the sewing front, I've been working on a lot of different things, and not finishing much of anything - but I did make this fun quilt back using up the scraps that I trimmed off of the Polaroid blocks!


And I finished assembling two weighted blankets today.  Tomorrow I'll be making the weights to go in them, and the covers.  Paying work rocks!!


And I received an exciting package today from Connecting Threads - some great prints from Tiger Lily by Heather Ross and a re-stashing of basic cream solid!  I can't wait to play with the Tiger Lily fabric - it's so cute!


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And finally, I had a great response to my Wednesday blogpost...


...and it appears that there is a lot of interest in having a challenge to encourage us to deal with all those scraps that are multiplying like bunnies in the nooks and crannies of our studios!  I'll be pulling this together over the next couple of weeks, with the first post on Wednesday, March 2nd.  I'll start then with an honest look at the state of scraps in my own studio - yikes!!  
Stay tuned - it's going to be exciting!

So - - - can I get a whoop whoop??

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And now it's your turn!

What's got you whooping it up this week?


What's making you dance a little happy dance?

Share - we want to dance along with you -
And it's always more fun to dance with friends!

The party will stay open until Sunday midnight -

Hope to see you there!

Hugs!

Sarah


Wednesday, February 17, 2016

I May Have a Scrap Problem....


Hi, all!

I think we'll try something a little different today, instead of checking out what's on the bookshelf.  I've been rolling an idea around in my head for a week or so, and I'd like to see if there's any interest in it out there in the blogiverse!  Because, you see, I may have a scrap problem....


Last week I was ironing and folding scraps at church so that they could be cut up by someone else.  Talking to a friend who was ironing with me, I wondered out loud about how in the world we could get all of our scraps organized at church - and thinking about how nice it would be to do the same thing in my own studio.  


Suddenly the thought occurred to me - what if I set a goal each month to clear out a tub of scraps at home?  Could I meet that goal?  And I realized that without some encouragement and accountability, it just wasn't going to happen.  Then I remembered the multitude of WIP challenges we see each January - where people are challenged to set goals and work on their WIPS throughout the year.


So my question is - would anyone out there be interested in a "tame your scraps" type challenge?  My thought is that everyone would set their own goal for the month, and link up a post with that goal the first month, then each following month, post their progress on the previous month's goal and their goal for the new month.  In between, there would be posts on storage ideas, great scrappy quilts, maybe even guest posts from people who have it all together and control their scraps!  (Come on, there have to be a few of you out there!)  


Currently, I have about a dozen large tubs of scraps under my quilt frame that are totally useless in their present state of disorganization - but I'd love to be able to make wonderful scrappy quilts at the drop of a hat.  With the cost of fabric these days, it's almost criminal to throw away your scraps - so let's tap into that wealth of fabric!  Are you with me?  And if you have any ideas for things you'd like to see as part of the challenge, speak up - I think this could be a lot of fun and a great way for us all to stretch a little bit!

 Hugs!

Sarah