Defying winter with one more fall quilt

Winter sure settled in fast this year and I am defying it by working on my last fall quilt of the year.  My aunt asked me to make her a fall quilt a while ago.  I decided that I would make sure to get it done for Christmas.  All her furniture is fall colors and it will be on display year round.  I went through lots and lots and lots of patterns and tutorials.  When I am making a table runner or mini quilt, I usually have an idea in mind.  However, when I make a larger quilt I invest time into something I really really want to make.  I creased a page in Quick Quilts Magazine Nov. 2009 edition to keep as an idea for later and came across it in my search through my patterns.  I am making all 80 seven and a half in blocks for this quilt.  I think in the end 60 of them will go to a quilt for my aunt and 20 to a mini quilt for me.

Here is a sampling of the finished blocks and their layout.

I usually don't square my blocks.  If I did they would always line up.  When I look at this pile of scraps after squaring each block, I am reminded that squaring takes time, but is totally worth it.

I don't have enough purchased fabric for the borders, but I was able to cut all the blocks from fabric I already had.  Even after counting the blocks over and over again to get the right amount, I still had three extra pieces I had cut and was short on one small triangle.  This quilt took a little longer than normal because I had to fold each piece in half to line up each triangle in the middle of the center square.  It was a pain but totally worth it.  80 blocks= 320 straight seams and 160 iron presses.  Madalynn helped me pressed the blocks when she was awake.  On the right...the process of sewing the squares.

Here is the stack.  I will get back to it sometime next week.  I have a week off work for Thanksgiving and will be doing a lot of sewing for Christmas.

Hope you enjoyed.