Beginning the D9P Project

I was good... I finished my nephew's quilt yesterday.   After such self-discipline, I rewarded myself by making a couple of nine-patches.

After sewing 5" fabric squares together, next comes the test of your 1/4" seams!   Measure between both of the two parallel seams, horizontal and vertical.  You should have a width of 4.5".   I am pleased to say that I did get that exact measurement...   I don't want to tell you how bad I was at 1/4" seams with my first disappearing nine-patch quilt.   I was able to fudge it when I pieced the blocks together but it was not fun.

Next, we are going to cut our nine-patches into four blocks, cutting along the dotted lines shown in this photo.

To do this, place your ruler with the 2 1/4" line on the left vertical seam.  Cut.  

Next, without moving the two cut pieces, place your ruler with the 2 1/4" line on the bottom horizontal seam.  Cut.

Now, you have four blocks!   Ta da!

 Next, we will make that nine-patch disappear by turning three of the blocks to this orientation.

Orienting your blocks this way will result in a quilt top that looks like this:

Photo from Jo's Country Junction

...or this:

If you prefer a different look, turn your blocks to this orientation.  I believe this is referred to as the "no seams match" arrangement...  none of the seams in the smaller blocks line up with any of the seams in the adjacent blocks.

And your quilt will look like this one:

Photo from Helen on Quilters Club of America 

And... just to prove I really did finish my nephew's quilt:

 

Layout

I've not gotten to the LQS yet...  pesky work... gets in the way of all the stuff I want to do!    But here is the 5" fabric squares layout for the D9P QAL...

The corner fabrics are from the "Penelope" charm packs and the center square will be a constant.  (The white squares are the cardboard backing from the charm packs... haven't gotten the solid/neutral yet.)  I'm not going to worry about two damasks per 9-patch...  'cause I have the big picture in mind.  

There is no reason you can't have five different prints per 9-patch...  I think scrappy would look great as well.

Staying Busy

Kinda tough without a sewing machine but I'm managing to do at least one thing in my sewing room every day.  Besides cleaning, straightening, and putting away piles o' stuff that have accumulated over the last 3-4 months, yesterday I cut out the 5" squares for the D9P QAL.

I also opened the charm packs and learned something else!   There isn't two of the rosy red damask squares but just one... the other is a more rusty red...   interesting!

While there are a lot of browns in the Penelope line, there are also some dusty teal greens as well.

I like the teals so much that I found a shop on Etsy that still has some yardage of "Penelope" and ordered a yard of one of the teals so I can have a few more squares of that in the mix.... and to add a narrow teal border as well as the brown and rosy damask.   Still need to make a run to my LQS for the solid/neutral.... but no hurry!

Rules

One of our D9P QAL participants emailed me to inquire about the rules...  and I suppose I should give some thought to those.

Start date:   I plan to start when my baby is repaired and home again, which I HOPE will be by the end of January.  However, I do not plan to make anyone wait on that happening.   Start when you're ready.

Do I have to sew so many blocks per day/week?    Nope.  Make progress towards your finish at your own pace.

End date:  The goal of this QAL is to have a finished quilt.   Life happens to all of us.   The end date will be when you finish.   

So the "rules" for this QAL are: 

• we're making the same quilt (disappearing 9 patch),
• we share photos of our progress,
• we offer encouragement and support to others in the QAL,
• we all end up with cool quilts, and
• we have fun!   

Work for you?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If you're thinking about joining in the QAL and are in the market for charm packs, Crazyquiltgirl has charm packs ON SALE now thru January 14th!   I've ordered from CQG in the past and have received great service... so she comes highly recommended!