Great Granny! {a finished tablerunner}

Isn’t she a beauty?

The original pattern from Lori Holt’s book called for 3 x 6 great granny squares, but I modified the design to fit the top of our bedroom dresser so this one has 2 x 7 blocks.

I am loving the texture of the free motion quilting.  By golly, I think I’m finally getting it!  Something just clicked in my brain this time as I was trying to freehand draw the design on paper before attempting it with my machine. 

The back is nearly as gorgeous as the front.  I was able to use this remnant of Anna Maria Horner fabric left over from another project and there was just enough to position the large floral motifs straight down the center of the back.

The finished size is 17.5 x 51.5.  Most of the blocks were designed by my two oldest daughters.  I’m pretty sure I only had to show them how to arrange it once and they were on a roll putting them together for me.  The background is Essex linen in a cream shade.

I used a lot of scraps for this project, so this will be labeled #2/52 for a little scrap project goal I am challenging myself to complete a la Crazy Mom Quilts and her 100 scrap projects goal.  I might be crazy, I am a mom, and I quilt, but there’s no way I could do 100 scrap projects like she’s breezing through them!  So 52 is my goal.

It feels great to have that old bath towel replaced by this tablerunner on our bedroom dresser! 

Thanks for visiting!

Great Granny {the tablerunner}

Earlier in the year I won this copy of Lori Holt’s book on Red Pepper Quilts.

I like a lot of the patterns in this book and I’m happy to have it as part of my home library.  In January we remodeled our bedroom, and sadly our dresser has been “decorated” with an old bath towel on top to protect the surface from the TV and other electronics stored there.

But that’s all about to change!

I’ve been planning this tablerunner in my mind for several months, knowing I wanted to choose fabrics that would look sophisticated and pop out against a black background.  Slowly I built up a pile of potential fabrics and this past weekend I finally started cutting the squares.

The cream is Essex linen, and a lot of the fabrics are scraps, hooray!  The first seven blocks are sewn and squared up, just seven more to go.  The squares finish at 1” and it takes me about 75 minutes to sew one (already cut) from start to end, so this is all I’ve been working on the past four nights.

Hopefully I will have a finish to share soon!