Granny's Garden Bedrunner - Preparation

The Granny’s Garden sew-along starts on the 26^th August - you can find out all about it over at Lori Holt’s blog. 

Last week I told you that I would be making a Granny’s Garden bedrunner and today I want to share more details.

Granny's Garden Bedrunner layout

The Granny’s Garden bedrunner will measure 78½” x 28½” (before quilting).  It will compose of fourteen Granny’s Garden blocks - which brings us to our first difficult decision – which blocks to choose?

I have decided on the following blocks:

Week 1           Block 1

Week 2           Block 5

Week 3           Blocks 9 and 11

Week 4           Blocks 14 and 16

Week 5           Block 20

Week 6           Block 24

Week 7           Block 27

Week 8           Blocks 31

Week 9           Block 33

Week 10         Blocks 37 and 39

Week 11         Block 41

My advice when choosing which blocks to include is not to get too tied up with it – any of the blocks will look good.  I have chosen my blocks so that they fall in line with Lori's sew-along itinerary. 

You can find the SAL schedule on page 2 of the guide.

Which brings us onto the second difficult decision – what fabric to use?  Of course you can use any fabric you like but I shall be using Lori’s new line ‘Granny Chic’.  

Granny Chic Fat Quarter Bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop

I shall be cutting my fourteen background squares from the fabrics suggested in the SAL guide for blocks 1 to 14.   

For the neutral cream circles I will be using an old favourite of mine – Kona Snow.  I like the soft white/creaminess of this fabric. 

Any cream or white will do for the circles.

I will be adding a lightweight fusible interfacing to the back of the Kona Snow before I fuse and cut my circles to reduce any fabric showing through but this is optional and something I will discuss next week.

All cutting sizes for the chosen Granny’s Garden blocks will be as the pattern.  However, on page 7 of the guide I will only need to cut 14 of the 10" squares and I will not need any other cream/white circles or squares ('Cloud Shabby' in the guide).  The border for the bedrunner is as the pattern but will be cut half as deep so I will cut my border blocks as follows:

Eighteen 10½” x 4½” border blocks

Four 4½” corner squares. 

(For the quick-fuse method I will not need to cut the interfacing squares and rectangles.)

I am machine stitching using the quick-fuse method therefore, I shall applique each circle onto the background square prior to adding the applique detail.  If you are hand-stitching your applique you might like to follow Lori’s method whereby you applique the detail onto the circles before attaching them to the background squares.  

Don't worry if the background fabric shows through a little - once the applique is added you won't notice it.

I will share some tips on saving time and fusible webbing as we go along.  So until next time ..................