Granny Square Quilt

I love sewing, and I feel like I always have one million projects in the works- but hardly any finished. In fact, I have finished several quilts recently, but one is a surprise gift (for someone that I know doesn't read my blog, but I still don't want to post it until she has it on her bed.) And one quilt just never got photographed officially, but is in pictures all the time - because we use it constantly.
But here is a little quilt that I actually just finished and photographed.
I started making these little "Granny Square Blocks" (by Blue Elephant Stitches) ages ago, with the plans for a throw or twin-sized quilt. I still have a couple dozen blocks left and will probably turn them into a quilt soon enough (some day.)
But in the mean time, I used a dozen of the blocks and made this little baby quilt for a friend's new little girl. By which I mean, I finished this quilt weeks ago, and the baby is now a couple months old- and I STILL haven't made it to the post office to send it! Yikes. I'm sorry. The post office is my nemesis.



I originally was just using the original Blue Elephant Tutorial, and not ironing open my seams (just ironing them to one side), because I'm not a fussy quilter. I just sew because I like sewing and picking out fabrics. But I don't love ironing. But my blocks were a variety of sizes! Some were 8.25" finished, some were 9.5" and that is actually a really big difference when you're trying to make matching blocks. I started using {THIS} tutorial from TraceyJay Quilts for triangle corners, and I started actually pressing my seams correctly, and suddenly, all my blocks were perfect. My seams aligned and all my blocks were all the same size.
I decided that I love this quilt and its so much work anyway with all the tiny blocks- (tiny for me anyway! I usually like big blocks!) that if I was going to make this quilt, I was going to make it perfectly! So this mini-trial-version of the Granny Square is actually a collection of all the mismatched blocks of different sizes. It's easier to work around it when it's so little.



The entire quilt is exactly the size of a one-yard cut of fabric, because that's what I used for the back. I love this quilt, but I stitched all the blocks together with a machine that was fighting me, and so the stitching is wonky and terrible in places. I'm kind of embarrassed by it!
But it was handcrafted with love, and made of pretty, snuggly fabric, so I think it will be alright.
Hello, tiny Granny Square Quilt. Someday you'll have a big sister to stay home with me- but now its time for you to go into the real world.