Aren't Grandmas Great?

A million years ago when I was a kid, my great-grandma made me this:

She actually made two, one for me and one for my sister.

Exactly the same, except mine has yellow binding, hers has purple.

(cause when you're eleven, purple is no longer cool)

Hand quilted. 

Itty bitty stitches.

Anyhoo, fast forward to a couple of months ago when I decided I wanted to make a quilt like it.  I didn't want to purchase a pattern and the only ones I could find online were paper-pieced, and had more of a wedge look to the rings, mine has square-ish bits.
I was stuck.

My grandma found out I was looking for the pattern, emailed her quilty friend that she had given all the quilting books to, and 6 weeks later I have the pattern. 

Aren't grandmas great?

The pattern is from "Country Quilts in a Weekend" by Fran Roen.  It was published in 1991.

With a title like that I would have NEVER found it on my own.  EVER.

I looked it up, Amazon doesn't even have it.

Upon reading the pattern, I was shocked to find out it was strip pieced.

using 2 1/2" wide strips.

super simple.

I'm working on a tree skirt using the pattern's templates and construction method.

I've got all the arches cut and I wanted to see what it was going to look like and get a sense of how big it will end up being.  about 45" square.

I love things that look difficult but really aren't.

Don't you?