Great-Granny patchwork squares

I've been a reader of the Jodi's Pleasant Home blog for quite a while and about 6 weeks ago she joined forces with Lori from the Bee in my Bonnet blog to host a Great Granny along. I've been admiring all the Great-Granny squares I've seen all over blogland and I really fancied having a go myself. So today I did.

First of all I had to go through all my 2½" squares I had and sorted them into colours:

Then I cut some white for my background colour:

Decided on my first layout:

Followed Lori's excellent tutorial on how to sew the block and produced this:

My second block didn't take me nearly as long to make as I sort of knew what I was doing.

I'm enjoying making these and, as they turn out to be 12½" squares - 12" finished - it wouldn't, in theory, take too long to make a quilt top with them. Believe it or not, I'll need to cut some more 2½" squares as there aren't many colours in those piles that have 12 of the one print in them which is the number I need for the outside squares. A great excuse to use up some fabric.

If you'd like to see Jodi's finished quilt top, take a look here. And, Lori has made some mini Great Grannies into pot holders here.