Tutorial – Remade Granny Square Quilt

I had to postpone our tutorial this week until Saturday, but didn’t want to skip it altogether.  When I was a child we had a crocheted granny square afghan on an old chair in the basement.  I believe it was made by my grandmother, and it was very heavy and colorful with holes in it from the double crochet stitch.  That’s about all I remember of it.  I wonder what ever happened to it?!  Apparently back in 2012, the tutorial that I am sharing today was quite the hit.  A remake of the familiar granny square afghan, updated for quilting.  Jolene shared her original blog post in 2012 and then another updated version via Moda in 2013.  The later version is jelly roll friendly.  I am sharing photos from the earlier version today.

The basic block calls for 2.5″ scraps of fabric.  I imagine the more divergent of scraps you use, the more similar it would be to a real granny square afghan.  Of course, there is no reason you couldn’t use a fabric line like a jelly roll or fat quarter bundle.  The block consists of a row of 1, 3, 5, 7, 5, 3, 1 squares, and it looks like this:

Jolene’s layout shows us that darker fabrics are used in the center with lighter surrounding them.  She used a white background fabric for the outer edges as well as a sashing strip.  I recall my grandmother’s afghan was done with black yarn (wool, I suspect) which really made the other colors pop.  You will use whatever color you like best for your blocks.  You will need to make 20 blocks in this manner this quilt.  It measures approximately 50″ x 60″ or a generous lap quilt.

Finally, as you can see in the photo above, you will trim each block once all seven rows have been constructed.  When I saw the block I thought there were a lot of half square triangles completing each row.  This is much better!  Trim all 20 blocks to the same size – her’s were about 9.125″ but the most important thing is to have them all the same.

Granny Quilt Splender

Add your batting and backing, and quilt as desired.  Jolene hand quilted the first version around each square.  Here is a closeup of a square and her quilting.  Isn’t this a fun, easy version of an old favorite?  Have I tempted you into making your own granny square quilt, to be handed down through the generations?  I have a pile of 2″ squares that might make a great modified version of this. ~smile~

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