Hi! I’m so excited to be guest blogging for Jenna. Back on September 3rd I was the lucky winner of her blogiversary giveaway sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop. I am Carrie from Crafty Moms Share. I’m relatively new to blogging, but not to quilting. My mother introduced me to quilting as a child, and I took classes on my own starting in 1994.

View B of Square It Up!

Well, I was very excited to win Jenna’s amazing pattern, Square It Up! and the Moda fabric from Chez Moi’s Sophie collection to make the quilt. It was such an easy pattern to piece. I was amazed at how fast it went and with the cake layer it was even quick to cut. By September 13th, I had posted a picture of the quilt top pieced how the pattern suggested. After seeing the quilt, I decided I wanted to expand it to fit my queen size bed. I loved the colors and thought it would be perfect to cheer up our bedroom. Plus the blue in the quilt matches the paint on our walls. So I ordered more fabric and waited.

Modified View A of Square It Up!

Full Size Version

Close Up of the Quilt for Fabric Detail

In the meantime I realized I had some perfect fabric to make my 2.5-year-old daughter a quilt. She is very into nursery rhymes and in particular loves Hey, Diddle Diddle (I have to make dish and spoon costumes for us for Halloween per her request). Well, I found a 14-inch square Hey Diddle Diddle pillow panel for the center square and also had found a nursery rhyme book of squares that were perfect for View A of the pattern, so I pulled out my nursery fabrics and any fabric I thought she would like and started cutting the necessary rectangles to make her a quilt. I discovered that this pattern is very easy to work with even if you are not using a layer cake. Since the nursery rhyme book had 12 pages I decided to do all the corners in the rounds with a block. In the pattern View A only has the outside round with such blocks (and of course they are suppose to match the center square). Since my daughter has a full size bed (inherited from my grandmother whom she is named after), I knew I would have to enlarge this one as well. To make it full size, I added another sashing square and then did another round of rectangles and then added a border to get the size I wanted it to be. It is a bit oversized and is a square. When layering it we had to cut and piece a queen size batting piece to get the proper proportion. My daughter is very excited about the quilt and loves to look at the different fabric and point out some of her favorite things like the Dish and the Spoon and Humpty Dumpty and the Three Little Pigs, etc.

Baby Quilt

I made so many extra rectangles and still had the other side of the center pillow panel, so I made a baby quilt which I’m planning on donating to my church for a raffle when I complete it. For this one I skipped the second sashing and round and just added a border so it wouldn’t be too big.

As you can see Jenna’s pattern is very versatile and easy to adjust to any size you may want. I absolutely love this pattern and could not believe how easy and quick it was to piece. I do not think I have ever pieced a queen sized quilt so quickly never mind three quilts of different sizes.

Seeing How It Fits the Bed

Now back to the quilt I won. I got the additional fabric and added another round of sashing and a round of rectangles and then added a border except I miscalculated and did not have enough of the fabric for the top. I considered doing a strip of more rectangles since I had enough, but after seeing how big it is, I decided it really did not need to be any bigger and my husband agreed, so I left it without the top border.

Queen Sized Square It Up!

Layering with Clips on Batting & Backing

My Mom Helping Me Out!

Now my next step was to layer the quilts. I have a small cutting table and the size of my oversized queen quilt scared me, so I called my mother. I went to Cape Cod to visit her for a weekend and while my dear father played with my daughter, my amazing mother and I layered my quilts (oh, and she provided me with large enough pieces of fabric for backings for both of the larger quilts). My mom is wonderful. I should add it is always nice to have an experienced quilter to help you along. She has taught several classes over the years and made so many quilts–too many for me to keep track of–so it was really nice to have her help and expertise.

Layering and Pinning

Now I was hoping to have pictures of at least one of the quilts completed, but I had trouble finding the correct presser foot for my quilting. I finally found it and have been quilting away. I promise I will post pictures on my blog and on a Manic Monday Linky Party when I do get them completed.

Overall, I love the versatility of the Square It Up! pattern and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn to quilt or make a quilt quickly. It can be done as instructed with a cake layer or just as easily as a scrap quilt.

I will end my post with my best wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery to Jenna. As much as I enjoy seeing all the different guest bloggers I miss her!