One block finished!

I finished sewing one of the blocks!  I love it!It was a lot easier to sew than I thought it would be, I actually did not mess up the first time around!  I'm really liking the mauve, brown and red combination with the navy blue background in this block.
I am using this tutorial from Lori Holt  to make my blocks.
These make 12 inch squares.  I have other tutorials on my pinterest board if you want to make different sizes, or just a granny square instead of a great granny square.  The third row is what makes it a granny square, the middle is the baby, first row mommy, second row is granny and the third row is the great granny.  I love that description from Lori!
First, always iron each piece as you sew when using your sewing machine, if you are hand piecing, do NOT iron as you go.  Confusing, huh?  The reason is because with machine piecing, you sew over the seams, with hand piecing, you sew up to the 1/4 inch seam, but not past it.
When you iron your rows, be sure to press the seams for the first row to the left, second row to the right, etc.  The reason for this is so that when you sew your rows together, you match your seams kind of like a puzzle piece, see the picture below.

See how, that since the seams go in opposite directions, the lines match up perfectly?
I don't normally pin, but I wanted to make sure my seams stayed perfectly matched, so I highly recommend it!

After sewing all my rows together, before ironing, this is what it looked like.  I purposely did not iron my rows so that I could take this picture.

Here is the front of my square, before sewing my rows together.

I had to trim my sides to even them up.

 I put my 5 inch rectangles  on the center rows, I have them pinned on here before sewing them on.  Be sure to press them after sewing.

My 12 1/2 square ruler kind of confused me, I was not sure where my center was, since there was and extra 1/2 inch on two sides.  I asked my husband to figure it out for me.  Of course Pippi had to help.

There was a yellow line going from one corner to the next corner, so my husband took another one of my rulers to figure out the center from the other two corners.

 The first black dot from the six was my center.  (where the scissors are pointing)

 I squared up my ruler and trimmed with my rotary cutter!  I'm so excited to have made my first block.

Since this is a prayer quilt, I passed out five other blocks to four of my friends who will sew them up this week.  We'll finish them on Friday.
Is everything clear as mud?  Be sure to read Lori's tutorial for the full instructions on making this block.
Happy quilting!
Missy