The Great Granny Sew Along - Week 3 - "Mama Blocks"!!! ...

It's week number 3 of the 

Great Granny Sew Along!

This week we are sewing the Mama Blocks.

These blocks are sweet and simple…

giving you the chance to use up leftover squares

in your scrappy stash.

Save your Squares!

(every square is important)

I named these the "mama blocks" because as you know…

I assigned a name for each round of squares 

in the great granny block

The center square is the baby…

and the next round is the mama.

So technically this could be called the baby/mama block…hehe

but I thought it best to just keep it at mama:)

I've been seeing so many photos on

 Instagram and Pinterest 

of squares cut and laid out next to  

Great Granny Squared

it makes me smile every time I see one!

This week is hosted by my friends 

Amy from Nana Company

Amy from Diary of a Quilter

Corey from Little Miss Shabby

Click on their names to see

 their sew sweet Mama blocks

and to get this weeks pdf

 and giveaway info:)

And don't forget to visit the

 Jolly Jabber 

to see Kimberly and Debbie's

 Mama Blocks as well!

The Mama blocks are the last blocks that we sew for the quilt top...

So next week…

I'll be telling you how to put the

 "Mama's Crochet" quilt top together…

and the last week will be the great granny block for the label:)

Click here

 to get all of the sew along info because it's not too late to join!

I love seeing everyones background choices for their blocks…

the background color always changes

 the look of the mama blocks dramatically…

making each one sew cute! 

In the book I used navy background 

for these blocks and I love the contrast.

On the other hand ...

I love the sunny warmth of a yellow background...

and the cool feel of the aqua as well.

I love to use different colors

 as well as white to change the 

look and feel of a block:)

So choose your background ...

and make your Mama blocks ...

 and post them onto the 

GGS Flickr

to enter this weeks giveaway.

If it's a nice spring day where you live…

 you can hang them up on the line

for the photo shoot!

Remember to leave no square behind…

xx

Lori

Fabulously Fast Quilts!

Good morning cute people!

Welcome to my stop on the

 Fabulously Fast Quilts blog tour:)

The tour is to introduce you to the new book

by my friend Amy...

 called Fabulously Fast Quilts

and I think it's a perfect name for it.

I'm so excited for Amy…

 and her first IS fabulous…just like her:)

Look at the colors of this quilt 

against the chippy aqua background…

so beautiful.

What is exciting to me about this book

 is all of the 

scrappy goodness going on.

If this is your first time visiting my blog,

You know I love me some scrappy quilts

and I use my scrappy stash

 every time that I sew.

All of the quilts in

 Amy's book are perfect

for this kind of scrappy stash sewing.

Amy asked if we on the tour would share a

fabulously fast tip…

and my tip is something that I talk about quite a bit…

How I build, store and use my leftover fabrics.

These are my quilty scraps.

Also known as -

my little bits of happiness.

They are all cut from

 the leftovers 

of my quilty projects.

I use them ALOT!

The reason it is so 

easy for me to use them …

is my fabulously fast tip.

And here it is…

I cut my leftovers into

 use-able sizes.

We all have leftovers that we keep 

because they are too good to throw out.

But really what is the point of keeping them

if they are just in a bin somewhere in your sewing room…

or under your bed?

 I like to cut my leftovers

 into strips and squares

and store them in baskets

 on the shelves of my studio

 where they are ... 

1. Easy to see  
2. Easy to reach

It makes sewing anything 

from a quick little gift to a 

large scrappy quilt so simple!

(and I love making something from nothing…don't you?)

Click Here

 if you want to know more 

about my scrappy stash:)

Go check out Amy's book 

and go check out these other

fabulously fast tips 

from others participating

 in Amy's blog tour:)

Have a quilty kind of day!!!

xx

Lori

Monday April 28

Sachiko Aldous of Tea Rose Home

April Rosenthal of April Rosenthal

Jennifer Mathis of Ellison Lane

Tuesday April 29

Jen Wilding Cardon of Stitch This! Martingale Blog

Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side

Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet

Wednesday April 30

Faith Jones of Fresh Lemons Quilts

Melissa Mortenson of PolkaDot Chair

Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock

Thursday May 1

Lee Heinrich of Freshly Pieced

Lynne Goldsworthy of Lily's Quilts

Jeni Baker of In Color Order

Friday May 2

Katie Blakesley of Swim Bike Quilt

Lindsay Conner of Craft Buds

Sherri McConnell of A Quilting Life

3 New Vintage Happy Patterns!...

I have been a busy bee playing with my 

newest fabric collection Vintage Happy.

Today I have 3 new patterns listed in my shop.

This first one is called

 Tumble Dry

I used 72 - 10" squares of Vintage Happy and a small amount of

 several matching solids to make the quilt.

I think the blocks remind me of the back of the dryer drum…

or a laundry symbol and so that is how it got it's name!

The blocks are rotary cut and pieced…

then turned into a circle with the help of my large

Bee in my Bonnet Circle Ruler.

Afterwards they are machine appliquéd.

It may look complicated but I promise it's sew easy…

(and easily addictive if I may say so)

I used this fabric from Vintage Happy for the back.

It's called the Vintage Cloth but I like to call it my

Vintage Victoria's Secret print…wink;)

And speaking of Vintage Victoria's Secret…

next up is my quilt of vintage bra's…

appropriately named

"Support Group"

I chose to use a new Riley blake solid 

for the background called Petal Pink…

Don't you think pink is a perfect color for a bra quilt?

I designed four different bra blocks called…

Training Bra, 34B, C Cup and Double D!

I mixed and matched Vintage Happy prints and a few solids...

And finished it off with a scrappy binding:)

The blocks are all rotary cut and machine pieced.

And last but not least is 

this quilt called of course...

 Vintage Camping! 

This quilt is inspired by

 my childhood camping trips.

My parents would load all of us kids

 (there were 10 of us plus our Irish Setter)

in the station wagon and 

off to the mountains we would go!

We were a close family 

inside that station wagon …

whether we wanted to be or not!..hehe:)

Good Times:)

As usual…

everything in this quilt is

 rotary cut and machine pieced as well:)

I started off by making the station wagon...

Then the vintage trailer

And then pieced the letters

 to spell out camping...

And put them all together and sewed lots

 of Vintage Happy squares around them:)

I backed it with this print from

 Vintage Happy…

inspired by vintage sheets:)

I made this for our trailer and

I can't wait to sleep 

warm and cozy under this quilt

on our next camping trip!

I also included this Vintage Trailer pillow in the pattern.

I plan on using this pattern a little later 

to make a quilt with all different Vintage Trailers:)

Each new pattern has just been listed

 in my Busy Bee Inc. 

It feels so good to be able to show you 

some of what I have been up to!

I have one more 

Vintage Happy pattern coming

but it won't be ready 

until Spring Quilt Market:)

Until then…

Have a quilty kind of day!

xx

Lori

P.S. I'm excited to be teaching

 my Vintage Camping quilt 

in a 3 day workshop May 1, 2 and 3rd

at The Quilt Barn in Kimberly, Idaho.

If you are in the area…

Click here 

to see if there is a

 spot available and come sew with us!!!