Introducing Great Granny!

She's all ready for her reveal! Great Granny came together so much better than I ever could have hoped. Have a few looks at her. I think you'll surely agree that she's a true beauty.

Not only is she a beauty, she's also rather a whopper in size. As I began making the blocks for this quilt, I did not have a firm plan in mind. It wasn't until I had run out of scraps that I decided I wanted a bed-size quilt. So while at retreat, I shopped for a few acceptable fabrics to work into my great granny blocks, and now she finishes at a very nice size for our queen bed - 88" x 76". There are 30 granny blocks with sashing strips, cornerstones, and a single border all around. A very pleasing quilt on which to feast one's eyes, wouldn't you agree?

To recap my progress on Great Granny, the picture below was taken at retreat and (mostly) shows  my 15 finished granny blocks. The fabrics below the blocks are the ones I'd decided to use to make 15 more. Five of the fabrics pinned up are new - all the darker ones. I had plenty of the lighter fabrics, so I found the three dark blue and the two dark pink fabrics to blend in.

If you have followed this blog for awhile, you are aware that I just "wing it" a lot of the times on the quilts I make, and this quilt is no different. I did not have a plan; one came to me while sewing blocks. Later I found many layout options on Pinterest, and I decided on the one which called for 2.5" white sashing strips and colorful cornerstones.

For the border, I liked the larger squares on point which seem to "float" around the quilt. I did not have a pattern, and I hoped as I made border units that I would "figure something out" if the side borders did not meet up properly with the top and bottom borders. I really have to say it was plain dumb luck, but the parts came together without much fussing at all. 

 

The colorful border squares are 4" while the setting triangles are made from 7" blocks cut twice on the diagonal. 

Great Granny is a quilt that I listed on my yearly goals, and she is done and ready for quilting. Yay! I have her folded up and in the queue for long arming - hopefully soon.

Happy Quilting, Friends!