Granny Square Quilt Blocks

What a week!  What started out simple enough has turned into sew much more!

Since Monday, I have been working on my very first Granny Square blocks, made from a 20 piece jelly roll of True Colors by Anna Maria Horner for Free Spirit.  This yielded 20 blocks.  The finished quilt is approximately 33" x 41".

Looks easy enough.  How do you make Granny Squares?  A quick search of the internet resulted with two basic methods.  A strip pieced method and a no waste method.  I went with the no waste method, but did one set of blocks according to the strip pieced method for comparison.

Granny Squares Baby Quilt

I would like to pass along some advice, if I may.  To learn from someone else's mistakes is usually a good way to go.  So I will be sharing an in depth tutorial in the coming week.  To share some tips that I wish I would have considered before taking on these Grannies.

Basting the Granny Squares quilt

It wasn't until I had completed making my Granny Squares that I considered just how I would be making them into a quilt.

Backing and Binding

I wanted to keep it baby quilt sized and preferred the look of the Grannies without sashing and in a squared setting.

This was when I realized there was indeed a better way to go about making the blocks.

One in which I could have avoided having to now piece all the sides and attempting to match up all those points.

As you can see, each of the white squares between the blocks is made from two triangles.  And where the blocks meet at the corners, the white squares are made from four triangles.

In real estate they say, "Location, location, location!"
In quilting we should always first consider, "Layout, layout, layout!"

Other than fabric selection, the first thing you should take a look at is how you want your blocks to be displayed.  Square or On Point?  With sashing or without?

If you are considering ever making a Granny Squares quilt, I encourage you to tune in during the coming week.  This tutorial will be covering suggestions for fabric selection, show examples of possible layouts, and methods for making Granny Squares according to the layout options.

Do you have any tips you would like to include?
Have you made a Granny Square quilt?
Would you like to share your Granny in this tutorial?
Let me know by leaving a comment!

Keep On Quilting On!