Thursday, March 20, 2014

Dancing and Disappearing 9 patch quilts

Life changes quickly.  Just when I was thinking that it would be really nice not to have to get up each morning and go to work, my position at work disappeared and I was terminated.  I truly believe that God has a plan and I can't wait for the next chapter in the book of my life.

I've had some time lately to work on a few projects and get some sewing done.  This week's project has been 3 quilts for a family of boys in our church.  I wanted to make it easy on me, so I used the same block - a disappearing 9 patch block using 5 1/2" cut squares.  I had planned for a regular sashing and a border.  I found this dancing arrangement while surfing and decided to go this route.

Why I started with 5 1/2" squares, I have no idea....but they did make nice big blocks and they sewed up quickly.  The math may have been a bit easier if I had cut them at 6", but too late now.  The tops are done!

I started by cutting my fabrics into 5 1/2" strips, then each strip into 5 1/2" squares.   Now, I don't have, and never really had a lot of scraps in my stash.  So, yes, I did go out and buy fabrics for these "scrappy" quilts!  Now, I do have a stash and will probably make more blocks/quilts for future give aways.

I didn't pay attention, just sewed groups of 3 units together. Then I sewed 3 sets of 3 together.  The only rule was that adjoining squares could not be the same fabric.


Once the block was sewn, I cut the block in half horizontally and vertically.


Then I took the top left and the bottom right and rotated them 180 degrees.  The block looks good....but, if I took 4 units from different blocks, I get a really great scrappy arrangements

 
 
All the units were sewn into pairs.  The pairs were sewn into blocks.  Again, the only rule was that I didn't want 2 adjoining pieces the same fabric.

I added sashing to two sides of the blocks as per the info on the Quiltville blog.  I added the sashing to the same two sides of the blocks.  Once the blocks were together in the quilt, the blocks were rotated....look at the little squares in the corners of the blocks.  They aren't all in the same position. The quilt does "Dance" a little more.
 
I wasn't sure if I liked it that way, so on the 2nd quilt, I took my time and made sure the blocks were the same way round once the sashing was sewn on.  I am not sure that it makes that much difference.  In the future, I will probably not worry and do the first arrangement as it is faster and there is less chanc of me making a mistake!
I needed to do 3 quilts for 3 little boys.  The youngest is a new born, so his quilt is smaller with only 6 blocks.  As I had made enough quilts for 3 quilts with 12 blocks each, I now have two smaller quilts with 6 blocks.  Woot, Woot!  I have an extra quilt ready to finish and give away.
 
I have  more 5 1/2" squares cut, not too many.  I have scraps left over from cutting the squares from the strips.  I need to find a project that I can sew to use up these scraps.  Maybe I should have cut 6" squares, so they can be cut down into 2" or 3" squares. ....hind sight is 20/20!   I'll come across something perfect one day.  For now, they'll go in a clear plastic tub and be put on the "TO DO" shelf.


 

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