A few weeks ago all the shows from The Quilt Show were available for free for one weekend. I binged. One of the last ones I watched had Ricky Tims showing how to insert a square into a square. I had to try this technique.
Quilters will notice that the larger square isn’t pieced around the smaller one, it is inserted, so no seams are visible.
As you can see, I couldn’t stop. Once I had this I realized I need to continue and build up a quilt.
I like my quilts to be rectangles, much more practical. So the first border has different widths to change a square into a rectangle. If I had planned out ahead, my final square would have been a rectangle, but at that point, I was just playing around.
I’m in love with rulers these days, instead of using Deb Tuckers, I used Jodi Barrow’s ruler. She gets the same results, but her approach is slightly different. 
Where Deb uses triangles, Jodi uses strips. It is all planned out to give you the finished block with the necessary quarter inch seams.
By now you must have figured out that scrappy is the way I quilt. I’m happy to say that this is truly a scrappy. I didn’t buy anything specifically for this, just dove into my stash. I also made my attempt at Rita Streimer’s quarter inch border. 
You can see how I am increasing the rectangle as I go. Both in the solid borders as well as in the pieced ones.
The angle of the camera makes this appear to be more of a square, that is how photography distorts. I had enough, a baby size quilt is enough for this project. I have a number of friends who are becoming grandparents in the next few months, a lucky baby will get this soon.
I LOVE quilting baby quilts! The project is small enough not to get drag as I work, I can just go to town with the quilting.
Even if the quilting gets lost in the busy print fabrics, it subtly highlights the shapes I want.
From this distance, it’s hard to see the quilting, but notice how firmer this looks compared to the image on the grass. Quilting not only provides warmth – because of the batting, it also turns a two-dimensional object into a very slight bas-relief one.
Done!
I deliberately chose a bright contrasting fabric for the binding. Sometimes I want the binding to blend in, at other times, I really want it to frame the quilt.
Can’t help myself, need to share close-ups.
Nothing exciting about the back, it is small enough that I didn’t need to piece it. The fabric is something I purchased at an estate sale and of course, my label is already there. When I figure out who is going to get this, I will put on a bigger label with more information.