Scrap Attack {Granny & Prizes}

Today is my very last post for the Scrap Attack Quilt Along before the Festival of Scrappiness!  The festival is happening this Monday, the 26th through the 28th here at Stitched in Color.  I've received lots of emails asking how to enter, where to enter, and please, please, please I want to enter.  Of course, I love that!  But, the answer is... not yet.  To enter the festival and be eligible for our prizes, you'll need to add an image of your scrappy quilt to the link party here on the dates of March 26th - 28th.  I promise, adding your image will not be hard.  You'll be able to upload it directly from your computer, no blog or Flickr account necessary.  It's going to be easy and fun and I can't wait to see your quilt!



So, I've been sewing. I'm right smack in the middle of completing 3 baby quilts in the Granny Square quilt block style, a project that's been cooking since February with the Faith circle of do. Good Stitches.  The Granny Square quilt block is the creation of Jolene/Blue Elephant Stitches, who created the tutorial this January as part of the Scrap Attack Quilt Along.  Since then, the block style has exploded with popularity.  You can find a ton of gorgeous granny square quilts at this flickr group.

This week I needed to make one more Granny Square block, so I tried some alternate assembly instructions that use triangles, instead of squares, for the background fabric.  Evelyn, one of the Faith circle members, figured out the math to share with the bee.  You can find her step-by-step photos for this variation in her Flickr stream.  Here are her cutting directions for the background fabrics:

- Two 4.5" squares, cut twice along the diagonal. These will be your 8 side triangles
- Two 2.75" squares, cut once along the diagonal. These will be your 4 corner triangles.

Evelyn's directions are spot on (though if you are unfamiliar with the block, definitely see Jolene's original tutorial first, so you have all of the directions)!  Here is my untrimmed block.



Working with triangles takes a little bit of know-how, but they use about half as much background fabric as the original squares and creates smooth edges without the little missing fabric chunks.  I would definitely do it this way again.



After trimming to 9 1/8" as recommended in Jolene's tutorial, I have just enough seam allowances past my points.  If I were making a new Granny Square quilt, I would use Evelyn's variation but trim the blocks to 9 1/4". Not only is that a happier number, but it would give extra seam allowances all the way around, which is definitely a win-win!

Prizes

There are too many Festival of Scrappiness prizes to cram into one post, so I've been announcing a few at at time.  If you missed it, catch the other prizes here, here, and here.  Prizes ship worldwide, unless otherwise noted.  For details on "How to Win" see the bottom of this post.

The last batch of prizes is my favorite.  It's a bit ironic, actually, but I think you'll like it.  The last five prizes are... SCRAPS donated by the bloggers who've shared tutorials in the Scrap Attack Quilt Along.  Because judging by some recent giveaways, you still can't get enough of scraps, can you?



Completely Cauchy was our first guest blogger.  She's a diehard scrapper who's inspiring fabric resourcefulness via Scraptacularity, Part 1 and Scraptacularity, Part 2.  The Part 2 is a smart tutorial for working with bias-cut scraps!  This pile of scraps is for one lucky winner.



Our second guest blogger was Amy over at Badskirt Amy.  We celebrated her Japanese x & + block tutorial and enjoyed a fascinating tangent about her scrapless stash. Since Amy doesn't really keep scraps, she's donating a prize with very nice cuttings.  In her words:  Rare Japanese prints, Australian hand screened prints, Liberty, Heather Ross, lots of Good Folks for postage stamps, some organic cottons. I think it's a fabric lovers scrappy delight - small but worthwhile.  Um, yes indeed Amy!




This tower of loveliness is the prize donated by Jolene of Blue Elephant Stitches, who wrote the now-famous Granny Square quilt block tutorial.   I just can't get enough of this picture.  Delish!  Somehow those fabrics already seem to match.  Looks like a quilt waiting to happen.



Sweet Ayumi of Pink Penguin also visited us for the quilt-along, with a tutorial for using tiny pieces to make miniature hourglass blocks.  Ayumi lives in Japan and sources lots of fabrics locally.  I can only imagine what treasures you'll find her her scrap bundle prize!  I spy texts prints!



And then there's little ole me.  I wrote two tutorials for the quilt-along:  Triangles and a variation of Herringbones.  For my prize, I gathered scraps that are no longer speaking to me, trying to channel some of Amy's advice for stash management.  It's a big bundle that I hope will chatter away to whomever wins it! 

But, WAIT, there's one more prize...

From Sew Love Fabrics, we have the complete Free Market Fancy fat quarter bundle!  Yippee!  Thanks Ruth!  At Sew Love Fabrics the Free Market Fancy collection is in stock and shipping now.  It's a gorgeous collection, apart from all the hype, and one that I'm looking forward to cutting into sometime soon.

I am so stoked to be able to offer this awesome prize that I decided to make it our Grand Prize.  Unlike all of the other prizes, which will be gifted randomly as "door prizes", this one will be awarded to a participant who stands out to me for her scrappy prowess.  I'm a little nervous to take on the pressure of choosing that winner (ok, a lot nervous), but I thought it would be nice to send out this one prize with intention.  I'll be considering each and every quilt that is added to the festival!

The Festival of Scrappiness starts Monday!