Stitched in Color

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Scrap Attack: Granny & Prizes

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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!

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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. 

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.

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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.

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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

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?

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Completely Cauchy

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Badskirt Amy

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Blue Elephant Stitches

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Pink Penguin

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And then there's little ole me. 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! 

The Festival of Scrappiness starts Monday!