Scraptacular Tutorial for Family Exchange = Picnic Quilt

It has been a long time since I've posted a tutorial. This one is so easy that I hate to even call it a tutorial but it is such an easy quilt that ANYONE can make this. So here is a great beginner project or for those of us that quilt all the time, it is a scrap buster.
This is the quilt. You can make it any size you want with any sized borders. I like the check border because it makes it more picnic looking and a fun scrap quilt is a wonderful to use outside and in the car and anywhere. You can even use those old charm squares you might have laying about for this quilt. When my sisters and nieces were at my house in September we decided we would make blocks for a quilt exchange for this year's reunion. Since many of my family members are beginners we voted to make this block below and then we'll exchange squares at the retreat and have a project to carry into the next year.
This quilt and block use 2 basic sizes. A 2.5" square and a 4.5" square. I love my templates above. But if you don't have these, use whatever you have to cut your squares. You certainly don't need exact templates.
I keep my scraps in a bin under my cutting table and they get pretty wrinkled by the time I get around to using them. I just pulled a big pile from my scrap bin and got going. You might want to press first. Put a movie on, set up your ironing board in a comfortable spot and have a fabric pressing session.
Next cut those squares. Bigger pieces can be divided into the larger 4.5" square and smaller pieces can be cut into the 2.5" squares. I am throwing away anything smaller. You might want to keep the smaller pieces for something else but my point in using scraps is to get rid of fabric in a useful way and then let the small bits go without guilt.
Stitch 2 of the 2.5" squares together. You may want to chain stitch and sew bunches of 2.5" squares but just join 2 at a time together. Press your seam and then join the 2, 2.5" squares to one side of the 4.5" square.
Then join the blocks like above. You'll rotate the smaller squares around so they look like this.
Sew together a row of blocks like this making them as long as you want.
Then the rows are joined together rotating the blocks around like above. Try your best to match your seams.
So easy. And before you know it you've made a dent in your scraps and created a fast and easy quilt any size you want. Border with something from your stash. This is a thrifty quilt using what you have on hand, even an old sheet will do. And if you are a beginner you can purchase sale fabric fat quarters and sale fabric for borders, or better still - thrift fabric from old clothes. And it is fun to relax and sew, no pressure, no big pattern to read.

Let's get creating.

-nanette