Great Granny Along...Week 4...

Good morning!

I'm back from my camping trip:)

We had so much fun at the lake 

with our friends!!

 Now I'm rested...

 and ready to get back in my studio

 for more fun.

Today is week 4 of 

The Great Granny Along

I wanted to show you some of the blocks that will be going into a lap size quilt.

I am making 20 blocks total for the quilt and I have most of them done...

but today I'm only showing you

 9 of them...because that's how many will fit on the design board in my studio!

Below are close ups of a few favorite's.

Are you all still having fun 

sewing your great grannies?

I am!!!

Beside's being fun and addictive...

another plus is that I am 

really making a big dent 

in my leftover pre cuts.

 I love me a quilt made from leftovers!!!

Okay...onto another tip.

Remember the tutorial that I did a while back on making my design boards?

I don't know if I told you that I often make two of the same size to use 

in transporting my blocks when I go 

on retreat or sew day...

But they work great for that too!

I just sandwich my blocks in-between 

the two boards so that they will 

lay flat and stay protected during travel. 

In the past I have always tied ribbon around the two boards to hold them together...

but a while ago...

 I came across these giant rubber bands

 in the office supplies at Target...

 And I just knew that they would be

 perfect to use instead of ribbon!

They cost only 3.00 and there are 

several different designs and colors.

In my next post...

I'll show you a new project that 

I worked on while camping...

the above photo is a sneak peek:)

Until then...

have a quilty kind of day!

xx

Lori

The Great Granny Along...Week 3

Yay!!!!...It's week 3 of the 

Great Granny Along:) 

I'm so thrilled with all of the blocks

 and finished quilt tops that have 

been posted on the 

GGA Flickr Group...

all of you are sew awesome!!!

This morning I wanted to show 

you 6 more 

Great Granny blocks

 that I made... 

I used the light gray solid from 

Millie's Closet as the background.

I'm going to be making a long

 table runner with these blocks.

                                                                 
                           

                             

    

                

I used a solid red for all of the 

"babies" and a different solid for 

     the "mama's" in each of the blocks.                                                   

And once again...

I used leftover pre cuts from

 Sew Cherry and Millie's.

I spent the weekend loading up 

the trailer...and this morning 

we are on the way up to the mountains 

for a week of camping at 

 beautiful Fish Lake.

We go every summer with lots of our

 friends and it's by far our very 

favorite camping trip of the summer!

So while I'm away...

keep on Great Grannyin' Along and 

I'll post more next week when I get back!

xx

Lori

The Super Penguin Quilt Along...

I joined my friend Ayumi's quilt along!

Ayumi is my friend from Japan 

that I've told you about before...

she is so super talented as well

 as an absolute sweetie pie.

I was so excited last week when

 she announced her quilt along...

I love everything that Ayumi does 

so of course I quickly 

jumped right on board!

Ayumi has teamed up with 

Super Buzzy 

 and they are offering one

 block a month for a year...

designed by Ayumi and sold at 

Super Buzzy...hence the name...

 Super Penguin Quilt Along!

All 12 blocks will go into a

 quilt when complete.

 With the hot month of July

 being the first month...

Ayumi designed these yummy 

popsicles to cool us off!

Today I'm showing you my versions

 of her lovely designs. 

Strawberry/Banana popsicle

Vanilla Bean/Marshmallow Fudge Bar

Blueberry/Lime Popsicle

Three popsicles together = the July Block

Ayumi is so generous...

she gave us 4 different 

popsicles in the pattern to choose from. 

I couldn't stop at just 3 so 

I made this one too.

I call it my

 Watermelon/Kiwi Popsicle:)

A tutti-frutti row of popsicles:) 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

I'll be spending mine 

in the backyard 

with friends and family...

and trying to soak up all of the

 yummy summer that I can!

xx

Lori

The Great Granny Along Week Two...

I bound my first Great Granny quilt 

over the weekend!

I'm happy with the way it turned out...

and for those of you who are 

making this size also...

here are the measurements

 that I used for the sashing 

between the blocks 

and the outside border.

Cut 6 - 1 1/2" x 12 1/2"

 and join the blocks together 

into 3 rows of 3 each.

Cut 2 - 1 1/2" x 38 1/2"

 and sew one onto each side

 of your middle row.

Now join the top row and the 

bottom row to the middle row.

Cut 5 - 3 1/2" x Width of Fabric strips

 Join them together on the diagonal.

Out of this long strip...

 Cut 2 - 3 1/2" x 38 1/2" 

and sew to each side of your quilt.

Now cut 2 - 3 1/2" x 44 1/2" 

and sew to the top and the bottom 

of your quilt for the finish!

***NOTE...especially because the edges 

of the blocks are on the bias...

 make sure that you cut the outside borders

 to the measurements that I have given you

 and pin from the center out...

making it fit and easing in where needed.

If you just sew strips onto the sides 

and then trim them off...

your borders will be ruffled and 

will not be pretty or lay flat...

making it very difficult 

for the quilting process!

If you haven't yet joined

 The Great Granny Along...

CLICK HERE

For this quilt I used a 

combination of my 

Sew Cherry fabric line...

along with my 

Millie's Closet fabric line.

I think they go together well!

I backed and also bound my quilt in this red/pink houndstooth from Millie's.

Below is a close up of a few of the

 Great Granny blocks in my quilt:)

I just get more and more excited 

every time that I see each and every

 one of your blocks on the 

Great Granny Along Flickr group

YAY!!!!

...this is "sew" fun to sew along

 with all of you!

Thank you all so much for all of 

your sweetie pie comments...

 I wish that I could have

 drawn every one of your names...

but of course there can only be one winner...and the winner of my 

Millie's Closet "granny roll"

is

Debbie@Happy Little Cottage 

Congratulations to Debbie!!!

And if you would like to 

enter another "great granny" giveaway...

go over and visit Jodi!

She is giving away some great granny candy!

Until next time my friends...

have a quilty kind of day:)

xx

Lori

18" Doll Dress and a Giveaway!!!

                   

On Friday I sewed a new dress for Pansy.

 Pansy is an 18" Daisy Kingdom doll

 from way back several years...I'm sure many of you remember them! 

 I keep Pansy at my house

(along with a few others)

 for Sophie to play with when she comes over.

I wanted to make her a 

new dress because

Nancy Zieman 

sent me a copy of her

 new book and asked me 

to try it out!

Nancy's book is called

30 Minute Doll Clothes

There are 10 basic easy sew 

outfits in the book

 that you can stitch up as is...

or you can add your own embellishments for an 

even larger wardrobe variety for the 18" dolls in your world:)

They fit the American Girl dolls perfectly but I chose to sew one for Pansy because all of Kassidy's American Girls are packed away for her own little girl someday:)

I decided to sew the 

"Tea Time" dress for Pansy 

on page 8 and I also decided to use my 

Daisy Cottage fabric line for the dress.

I changed it up just a little...

 by adding a wide hem on the bottom 

of the Tea Time dress.  

I simply cut a 4 1/2" x 40" strip of fabric

 out of a Daisy Cottage stripe...

Then I pressed a 1/4"hem down 

both long sides of the strip and then

 I pressed it in half.

I then unfolded it and inserted the

 floral dress skirt inside...

And topstitched into place like this.

I stitched the bodice sections and 

straps as per the instructions...

                        

And finished up the dress!

Fun and Easy.

I can see why the book is called 

30 Minute Doll Clothes because that's how long it took me to make the Tea Time dress.

I decided to make a large 

flower clip that would

 be easy for Sophie to add and to 

remove when she wanted to.

I cut a 3" x 22" strip of Pewter Gray 

solid and folded it in half.

I gathered it using a needle and thread...

and fairly large stitches.

I pulled up the gathers so that the 

strip formed a circle...

and then took some tucks in 

the center here and there

 to make the flower puff up a bit!

I added a 1 1/8" covered button for the center.

Thanks so much to Nancy for 

sending the book to me...

I found the instructions very clear

 and easy to follow.

And for your info...

Nancy is having a giveaway 

to celebrate the release of her book!

CLICK HERE

 for the details and to enter.

On a side note...

thanks so much to everyone who has

joined The Great Granny Along fun!

I have "sew" loved seeing all of your 

 blocks over on the Flickr group...

so many beautiful fabric combinations!

It is NOT too late to join...

CLICK HERE 

for my block tutorial and all of

The Great Granny Along details. 

Tomorrow morning I will announce the

 winner of my Millie's Closet 

"granny roll"

good luck to everyone!

xx

Lori