Oh, Granny! • Granny Square Sewalong 2026

April 26, 2026April 28, 2026 Elizabeth E.15 Comments

Head’s Up: Tutorial Ahead!

Just for fun’s sake, I decided to do an Instagram search for samples of the ever ubiquitous and pretty famous Granny Squares quilt because the marvelous Carol Gillen and I wanted to do another quilt-a-long with each other in 2026. (I think this will be our fourth?) Come along if you want. First up: the eye candy. I put a conglomeration of links afterwards, and each image is named with the Instagrammer (right-click on any photo to see it in a new tab, and you’ll see the “name” that way, along with the number showing what slide it is).

I think there must have been a lot of Granny Square quilts made in 2020, as a lot of the pictures are from around then.

A bunch of Instagram links that have the quilt, but which don’t necessarily correspond one-to-one to the above gallery:

jandidean • olieandevie • shesewsseams • satomi_quilts • sugarbeequilts • zbinden6 • prairiequiltco • latimerlanequilts • tiltingplanet • lyrebird_lamb • gina_tell_threadgraffiti • happylittlecottage1 • penelopehandmade • pdxannie • pdxannie (again) • alisongamm (tiny blocks) • quiltingkaro • simplegirlsimplelife • sharonhollanddesigns • sekephart (a new method) • maureencracknell (block) • maureencracknell (full quilt)

From what I saw, there are two basic kinds: the three-squares-across version and the four-squares-across version — an iteration of the original. (Ignore the photo above with six blocks across; that maker may be an overachiever and she freely admits she only made this one block. And while I admire the quilter who did hers by EPP [shown in the top row], we’re doing Old School Piecing.)

The “OG” Granny Square is the block on the upper left. We also call the one on the upper right a Granny Square, but the original name (according to Brackman) is the Garden Patch block, published in Quilt World in the mid-1970s; the color placement does differ slightly.

I saw a lot of posts, and websites, and perused videos, but I never found the source of the urban legend that says that the center of the block represents the baby, the next row represented the mother (the baby had four mothers?) and the next row was the grandmother (now this child has 8 grandmothers?). Wherever that came from it certainly wasn’t on the radar of quilt historian Barbara Brackman. The block in her book (the Bible of quilt blocks) is called Grandmother’s Pride, and hails from around the 1930s, from a mail order source called Home Art Studios.

Another blogger had it the other way: the center is the grandmother, the four surrounding blocks are her daughters, and then on to grandchildren. Okey, dokey. I think the origin of this quilt square might have come from a quilter who was trying to mimic the ubiquitous crocheted granny squares whose first origins are from the 1880s, but I have no way of knowing.

On to the making. Here’s a slideshow with pictures of my first test sample:

Three-square row blocks using 2 1/2″ squares trims out to be 9 1/8″ which is a block size I can work with.

Here’s the test sample for the 4-square block, again using squares cut to 2 1/2″ EXCEPT FOR THE WHITE BACKGROUNDS, which I cut differently (info in the free handout, below):

The dimension after trimming is 12″ square. Again, while it feels counter-intuitive to not know the finished size of a block when you begin, it’s probably easier to figure out what size square you want to work with and cut those, and then figure out the dimension of the final block once it’s all trimmed up.

I give you more dimensions and block sizes in the PatternLite Download, which for a while, is free. After that, it will move to my Pattern Shop and will probablymaybepossibly retail for less than a fancy drink in your favorite restaurant.
So download it now, while it’s free.

Granny Squares_OPQuilt PatternLite Download

Another Hint: color is the thing. Decide what you want in the middle (light, dark?) and in each surrounding row. I did like the quilts that had different colorations, so sometimes you could see crosses going across the block. Two ways to put it together: sashed? Not sashed? A million different tutorials out there in Quiltland. Once Carol and I get rolling, we’ll probably post up our ideas, but for now, let’s just get started on making blocks.

We’ll probably start somewhere in May-ish? We haven’t decided yet. We’ll put it up on my least favorite-which-used-to-be-a-favorite social media, Instagram. Here are our addresses: Carol and Elizabeth. I’ll also post my blocks up on BlueSky, too, and Carol has Threads. Which block am I going to sew? I’m learning towards the 4-square version, although the 3-square version is also tempting.

Final Throught: Hashtags appear to be pretty useless now in Meta’s world However, I will be tagging my posts for organizational reasons: #ohgrannysquare2026 It might be easier just to follow us on Instagram, Threads or BlueSky or type in the words Oh Granny Square and let’s hope for the best!

And just for the record, Granny Squares seem to be making a comeback. Here are two I saw while in France last week:

Happy Sewing!

What Were The Other Sew-A-Longs?

Oh! Christmas Tree was made by several of us who hung around at that time.

Pumpkins, 2021

Posh Penelope, where all three of us (Carol, Linda and I) nearly lost our minds, 2025

First Monday Sew-day · Quilt Patterns · Quilts · Something to Think About · Tutorial

Economy and Rough Drafts

April 12, 2020May 7, 2026 Elizabeth E.10 Comments

I help teach a group of beginning quilters, and we call ourselves First Monday Sew-day, and yes, I know it’s not the First Monday today, but it’s COVID-19 season and nothing is normal anymore. For this First Monday Sew-day, I chose to teach the Economy block, also known as the Square-in-a-Square block.

I’ve made a little handout to go along with this, which includes a detailed chart of measurements. Click to download the PDF file:

FirstMondaySewday_4_2020

(NOTE: I’ve also collected all my First Monday Posts and put them in their own page at the top of my blog, just in case you want to find them easily.)

I looked at Catbird Quilt Studios’ chart, but then decided I wanted to test out my own measurements. First I cut some sunny yellow fabric for the centers.

I pulled some neutrals from my stash, cut the triangles, then painstakingly went through each measurement, adjusting it to what I thought would work for teaching beginners, then went to work.

After getting the first set of triangles on, I squared it up, jotting down the measurements as I went through each size.

When you trim, do your best to leave a 1/4″ of seam allowance at each point, as shown above.

I love this color of blue, known around our house as painting-tape blue.

I’ve already put the triangles on the first two sides and pressed them. Now I’m starting on the second set, with the finish below:

Here are all the sizes, stacked up together. I’m thinking bordering the smallest sizes again to equal that large 15″ block in the lower left, and seeing what evolves.

This is a free pattern from the Robert Kaufman Fabric Company, and it uses the Economy block, but the quiltmaker fussy cut center blocks for more interest.

I added one more set of triangles on this economy block to get this quilt. Doing a search on “economy block” yields lots of images to scroll through.

I liked how this quilt maker had pinwheels inside their Economy blocks. Our beginners learned how to make pinwheels when they learned about Half-Square Triangles.

And I’m still making masks. I am making them for people I know, friends and family who need them as our particular county is a mask-wearing place.

So when two friends came by and I realized that these masks wouldn’t work for them, I went back to the Accordian-style mask, added a nosewire sleeve and turned the sides into plackets, through which I could slip some elastic.

I’d say this is the fourth or fifth iteration of cloth masks that I’ve made. I kept wondering why I couldn’t be like all the other mask-makers of our particular universe, and just settle into one kind? I was heartened by “Tear It Up and Start Again,” an article by Harry Guiness, that reminded me of things I used to teach my college students, back in the day. I reminded them never to turn in their first draft, as the really good writing starts to happen on the third or fourth rounds (inevitably the class would groan about this point). Guiness notes that “Too often, when it comes to self-improvement, we create idealized, top-down systems with unnatural rules and regulations. We naïvely assume that we will somehow stick to our rigid plans when life gets random and hard, throwing unavoidable chaos and crises into the mix.”

We’ve all had some unavoidable chaos recently. While this article dealt more with those self-improvement plans we all make for ourselves (I hope you have all torn yours up during this stay-at-home time), I did like his nuggets of truth, such as this one: “When a plan or resolution fails, the solution isn’t to dismiss it and try a new, equally rigid prescription next year or next time. It’s to build on what worked, ruthlessly cut what didn’t and start straight away on a much-improved second draft.” I like that I won’t have to discard what I learned in my first draft, but can carry forward the best parts.

“I never lose. I win or learn.” This phrase has been attributed to many, but whoever said it was on to something. Hopefully we won’t lose during this time of forced idleness (for some), crashing boredom (for some), an onslaught of toomuchtodo (for some). We can win at our tasks if everything goes smoothly. However, you can tell by my variety of masks that it doesn’t — usually — go smoothly for me, but we can still learn new things about others, or new things about ourselves.

I’ve learned I like to tinker to figure out which mask will fit which face. I’ve learned that I can’t read the news before I go to bed at night. I’ve learned that my current forced isolation and distraction (courtesy of the novel corona virus) is not the best working environment for getting my quilting projects done.

I’ve learned a million new science-y facts about peak dates and doubling rates and flattening the curve and so on (I am married to a scientist), which may or may not come in handy in the Life After COVID-19. But hopefully I’ve also learned that my first drafts can lead to successful subsequent drafts, no matter whether it’s writing, or quilting, or making masks.

*The Last Supper of Christ*, by Jorge Coco

Happy Easter to everyone!

Tutorial

Signature Blocks

April 27, 2019 Elizabeth E.8 Comments

I’ve done several types of signature blocks, so thought I’d update my tutorial on how to make a signature block for friends. The basic kind I make (L) is a small block, that the people in the Bees I participate in, send with their blocks. The larger size (R) is suitable for a friendship quilt, which we made for our friend Lora when she moved away.

Cut one white, or light, 3 1/2″ square and two 2 1/2″ squares. I like to use the fabric that was in my block that I sent. (Click on any circle to enlarge it.)

Place the smaller block on the top of the larger block, aligning corners, right sides together, and draw a diagonal line. Stitch one-to-two threads away from this line, towards the corner. This is the same technique used when making snowball blocks, in order to give room for the fabric to turn over the stitching line. Trim off the excess corner, leaving 1/4″.

In Circle 1, I’ve trimmed away the excess fabric and pressed the block. The center should measure about 1 1/2″ wide (Circle 2). In the last circle (seen from the back), I pressed a scrap of freezer paper, shiny side down, to the wrong side of the white strip in order to stabilize the area where I’ll be writing.

I’ve made myself a card that I place underneath the white area, to help keep my writing aligned; I use paper clips to keep it in place. I use a Micron Pigma 08 pen to write.

What to write on a Signature Block that is included with bee blocks? In our bee, we suggest: Name, IG name, the date (in smaller writing) and the city where the quilter lives.

When making the larger signature blocks (quilt shown above), I used a 6 1/2″ white square and a 5″ contrast square. It gave a good amount of room for Lora’s friends to write their names. I did back every white part with strips of freezer paper, and collected signatures from all the church ladies to give her a good send-off. Many wanted to write a message, but we encouraged them to just leave a signature.

I’m sure you can see the double stitching on the corner. Because this was a larger block, I did two lines of stitching on those corners, 1/2″ apart, then cut right down the middle when I trimmed. That yielded a sweet-sized HST to use for other projects.

Signatures

Some time ago, I made myself a signature quilt, collecting names of those who were significant to me at that time in my life. Some six years later, all these sweet granddaughters who signed a block (above) have grown up.

SilverGold_draped — *Silver and Gold*, 2013

In this case, I used the center of the King’s Crown Block (also the basis for the popular Meadowland block that is currently all the rage; see below), sending around white blocks of fabric backed with squares of freezer paper all over the country, asking them to write their names in pencil (which I later traced over with my Micron Pigma 08 pen).

However or whatever your need for signature blocks are, I hope these tips are helpful!

KingsCrown_Meadlowland Quilt Blocks

Photo Gallery Label

Sampler Quilt 2015with Sigs — I’ve circled where I used my beemates signature blocks.

Signature Blocks19_11 — This shows the signature blocks of my beemates set in the back of a recently finished quilt, like kiss marks (sweet thought!).

Piggies-signature blocks — I inserted the signature blocks in a row on the back of this quilt, with my “label” the same size and shape in lower left.

Piggies2_back

Free Quilt Pattern · Gridsters · Tutorial

Basket Block Tutorial • February 2018 • (Gridster Bee Month for Me!)

January 29, 2018January 29, 2018 Elizabeth E.5 Comments

gridsters-250-buttonx

I belong to an online bee called the Gridsters, and February is my month to choose a block that my beemates make for me. You can find all our work on Instagram, using the hashtag #gridsterbee.

Basket_8

I chose a basket block.

Basket_food fabrics

I also have been saving food-themed fabrics forever for a basket block quilt with the baskets full of food beginning at least a couple of decades ago, and continuing as I picked up a food fabric here and there.

I was also inspired to make basket blocks by Barb, of Fun With Barb and Kelly of Pinkadot who decided to do it together; their tutorials are on each of the links, above. I upsized the basket block to 10 inches in size, so the making would go faster. (You’d think with all the quilts in this house, I would have enough twin-sized, but I don’t, so I’ve already decided that’s the size it will be.)

If you want to join in with me, or Barb and Kelly, in making baskets, I’d suggest we follow their request to tag our Instagram photos with #basketswu [Baskets Sew With Us]. (Gridsters please tag them also with #gridsterbee.)

For the Gridster Bee

I’ve sent you some food fabrics; please use those for the A section of your blocks. I don’t care what you use for the basket–it can match, it can contrast, it can coordinate, it can clash–choose what you think creates the look you want. You can use small scale prints, large prints, florals, novelties, checks, whatever.

For the low-volume background, use these types of fabrics:

Basket_low volumes YES
They are a range of creamy-toned fabrics, without strong secondary designs.

Avoid these types:

Basket_low volumes NO

Solid in creams is okay, but avoid white, grey, tan, beige, white-on-white (I really don’t like beige for this quilt, but understand the limitations of our stashes–just do your best). Many of the above fabrics have strong motifs and patterns, so reject those too. Basically, I want the background to recede without being dull or same-same.

Basket Tutorial

Basket Block_ESE — *Not to size, for reference only*–please use the PDF link below.

Here’s my cutting sheet for this tutorial, in PDF form, but the usual requests apply here–don’t print off a million copies for your mother and your friends, but please send them here to get their own: Basket Block 10 inch_OPQuilt

Basket_1 — All my basket pieces laid out.

First, make the Half Square Triangles.

[Background: One method is from Alyce, and she has a nice chart if you want to figure out your own eight-way Half-square Triangles. However, I also have a different chart on this post which came from Jeni Baker, who encourages the use of a bigger initial square. That means for us (and especially if you like to trim your HSTs) you would begin with a 6″ block, which is what I’ve specified on the cutting chart. BTW, her book on triangles is a good one to have in your library. ] Basket_2
Place one 6″ background square and one 6″ basket square right sides together. Mark two diagonal lines, and sew 1/4″ on either side of the marked lines. On the left is the pieces with the sewn diagonals. Press it flat to settle down the wrinkles, which you see on the right.

Basket_4b — I moved mine apart to demo this; leave yours close together.

Cut on marked lines. Now without moving your squares, cut on mid-lines, crossing the centers, as shown below. Press, with seam allowance to the dark side, trimming out dark fabric, if necessary, so it doesn’t show through. Trim to 2-1/2″ inches square.

Basket_3
Make center half-square triangle (piece A-1): Place a food fabric (measuring 6-7/8″ square) onto a basket square (same size), drawing a diagonal line, then stitching on either side of that line. Press, then cut on marked line, then press towards the basket. You’ll have an extra center to toss into your Random Patches Box. (You do have one of those, don’t you?)

Press seam allowance ALWAYS towards basket, to give that dimensional look that something is IN the basket. Now trim that center to 6-1/2″.

Basket_5
Here are all the pieces, laid out. I chose a stripe to demo, so you can see the direction the stripes go. If you use the eight-at-a-time half-square triangle method, you’ll have no problem getting the stripes in the small half-square triangles go the direction you want. Yes, I did cut the 6-7/8″ square (basket) on the bias, so I could have the stripes go across the unit.

Basket_5a — I made two blocks at once; one had a light center, and one had a dark center.

Stitch together the three small half-square triangle pieces; press in the direction they want to go, which is usually toward the flat triangle piece.

Basket_5b
Stitch one 2-1/2″ block onto one unit (shown in upper left corner). It helps to arrange your square as you go, so you get everything all sorted out right.

Basket_5c
Sew the first three-unit “basket handle” to the center HST, as shown on the left. Press seams away from basket, even though they don’t want to go there, again to preserve the illusion that something is in your basket.

Basket_6
Sew the second three-unit “handle” with the C square to the center unit, as shown. I pressed the square C-block toward the three-triangle unit so that the seams would nest neatly when I arrived at this step.

Basket_7
Create basket stand by sewing one of your small HST to the D-rectangle. Pay attention to which direction the triangles are going. Stitch this first unit onto the basket.

Repeat with second HST and D-rectangle. Sew ONE of the C (2-1/2″ squares) to ONE of the basket stand units. Stitch this onto the existing basket.

Basket_9
And you are done!

There are lots of fun ways I can finish this basket quilt:

I like this setting, with all those energetic chevrons in between the baskets.

Looks like red is a pretty popular color for setting these blocks. I have more basket ideas on my Pinterest site, if you want to see more block settings. (I’ve been collecting these ideas for ages.)

Thanks to the Gridsters for making me baskets this month, and I hope you all have fun making a few for yourselves.