My Favorite Quilt Block Blog Hop

When Carla of Creatin' in the Sticks asked hoppers to join her Favorite Quilt Block Blog Hop I signed up right away. I love playing along with blog hops and challenges.

I create some of my favorite projects during these events and I loved having an excuse to work with one of my favorite quilt blocks.

I have several favorite blocks and wasn't sure which one to pick at first, so I asked my husband, "What is my favorite quilt block?"   He answered within seconds,  "The nine patch."

Later I asked my daughter the same question, she also said, "The nine patch."

That solved my dilemma right away of which block to choose.  The nine patch is such a great block.  It is cute by itself, it looks great in other blocks, and even makes some pretty spiffy corner stones in sashing.

For this hop I new exactly which quilt I wanted to make. I had been eyeing a nine patch pattern I found on Pitnerest.  I am not sure the name of this pattern or where it originated from but it was captioned Scrappy Stars.  I clicked the link to find more info but it lead me to one of those weird sites that have nothing to do with the picture.  If anyone knows the pattern let me know!


I wanted to have it all quilted before today, but Hurricane Dorian had other plans.  We didn't have much damage here.  Just a little rain and wind and few branches fell, and we did not loose power this time.  Yay! But I did loose a couple days of sewing due to hurricane prep, so it is still in the flimsy stage.

*Update* Ack! Yes that is one of my triangles is turned the wrong way in this photo.  Good thing I haven't quilted it yet, that one will get turned around. There are actually three turned the wrong way this one and two more at the bottom. And I thought I had them all going the right direction. Ah well, things were bound to get turned wonky with this many blocks.

Since I didn't know the dimensions of the pattern online, I decided to come up with my own and I wanted to go small. I chose 3 inch finished square for my nine patches and Triangles in a Square blocks and a lot of them. The top measures 69 x 81.  Its a biggy.  I did 23 rows across and 27 down.

That ended up being 311 nine patch blocks and 310 Triangle in Square blocks (another one of my favorite block builder pieces).

I started out sewing the nine patches in groups of 50 at a time to break it up. 

I pulled the colors from my scrap bin.  I cut some colors into 1.5 inch squares and sewed a few nine patch squares together individually.

For the majority of the nine patches, I cut a 4.5 x 1.5 inch strip and sew an identical white strip to it.  Then I trimmed off 1.5 inches and added a 1.5 inch white square to that section to make the middle row.

That left a 3 x 3.5 inch section.  I sewed a three inch colored strip to that and then cut that in half to get my bottom and top rows.    Then sewed the nine patch rows together.

This method seamed quicker than cutting 2799 individual 1.5 inch squares and sewing them together one at a time.

Next I needed 310 Triangles in a Square.  I love these little blocks.  They are usually seen as parts of other blocks, most notably in the 54-40 flight block and its variations. I opted for the darker blues for the triangles.  I wanted the blue triangles to stick out a bit. The nine patches have some blue in them, but I kept those on the light blue or teal side.  I didn't want to have any of the triangles fade into the nine patches.  Once all 310 of those were done it was time to sew everything together.

Laying the quilt out was fun.  I loved playing with these small nine patches, they are just so cute!
The quilt was so big it didn't all fit on the design wall. I had to put the last two rows on the floor.

I am lovin' this nine patch quilt!

If you want more nine patch inspiration check out some of my older projects.
You can click the label Nine Patch to see them all.

For even more inspiration, check out all the other favorite blocks posting today,
and follow along all week to see even more!

Monday, September 9th

Just Let Me Quilt

Words & Stitches

VroomansQuilts

PamelaQuilts

Songbird Designs

Days Filled With Joy

Quilted Delights  (Me)

Tuesday, September 10th

Quiltscapes

Melva Loves Scraps

Stitchin At Home

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Mary Mack Made Mine
Just Because Quilts

Den syende himmel
Selina Quilts

Wednesday, September 11th

MooseStashQuilting

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Kathleen McMusing

Karrin's Crazy World
April Grace Quilts
Hazel’s Daughter
Seams To Be Sew
Limeleaves

Thursday, September 12th

Websterquilt

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Nutz 4 Redwork
Quiltsbyjoanne
Ms P Designs USA
Pampered Pettit
Hill Valley Quilter

Friday, September 13th

For the love of geese
Life in the Scrapatch

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Alycia Quilts - quiltygirl
Domestic Felicity
The Joyful Quilter
QuiltFabrication
Creatin' in the Sticks

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Results from Teaching a Beginner Quilt Class

I started teaching a beginner quilt class at the beginning of this year. These 9 patch quilts are the first project we worked on. As the teacher I sew along with the class and make what they are making.

What made me decide to start this class was the phrase, "I wish I could quilt."  Over the past year I  have heard that phrase a lot when talking to people about my quilts.

I would respond, "If you can sew a straight line you can quilt." Sometimes I would add, "If you are really interested, I can teach you."  Sometimes I got an "OK"... or "I have a machine, but never even opened it,"... or "I'll have to take you up on that."  But no one really took me up it and I'd still hear the phrase,  "I wish I could quilt."

So I decided to start a quilt class.  I mentioned it to one of my friends at church and she said we could use the church building and suggested Tuesday nights.  I knew I couldn't meet every Tuesday night, but wanted to do it more than once a month, so we decided on every other Tuesday at first and then after the first couple of classes we changed to the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month.

I opened it up to anyone who wanted to come free of charge. All they needed to bring was their own supplies. My husband even comes and started his very own quilt.  This is his blue one,  He sewed most of the 9 patches and quickly realized sewing is not for him, so I helped finish his up.

He still likes to come to class though. He enjoys the design process, playing with the pattern layouts, and hanging out with me, but the sewing part just isn't for him.

It has been a fun class.  All skill levels are represented from those who have never sewn a stitch on their machine to people who have made several quilts already.  We have already done a second quilt with half square triangles and are about to start our third quilt in the middle of July.

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Summer Sunset - Finished!

I finished my summer sunset quilt just in time to link up for the first quarter of the 2017 Finish-A-Long. I had a little extra incentive to finish this one on time as I wanted to give it to my brother-in-law for his birthday on April 1st. 

This was started in January of 2015. I forgot to measure it, but it fits perfect on a king size bed without draping over.

This was the only finish off my Q1 Finish-A-Long list, 

but I definitely did better than the last quarter. :)

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Sashing and Cornerstones

I am diligently working on getting my Christmas Dresden quilt top done by the end of January.
Not quite sure how this month got away from me so fast, but there are only two days of January left.
Getting the top done by the end of January is my ALYOF goal so I will be spending the rest of tonight in the sewing room.

The sashing is already sewn together and  I sewed a little bit during my lunch break today and got most of the 9 patches finished.

Tonight I will make the red red centers to cover the holes in the dresdens.

After that all I need to do is sew the rows together.

Lets hope all goes well in the sewing room tonight!

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4 Small Quilts

Sometimes you just need a walking foot.  I made the tops in the spring for my guild's charity project and they have been patiently waiting for me.  With the September Guild meeting coming up I lit a fire under myself to get them finished to turn in. I spent my labor day at the sewing machine and got them all finished. (I wasn't the only one inspired, we had over 15 donation quilts turned in during the September meeting.)

 It took me less than an hour per quilt to get these done.  No fancy free motion quilting, just straight lines with the walking foot and they turned out great.  Sometimes all you need is some straight lines and in the ditch quilting.  They measure around 24 x 36.

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4th Shirt Quilt Finished

This is the 4th completed quilt of the 7 Shirt quilts I have been working on.

I finished the quilting last night and put the binding on this afternoon.

This quilt is similar to finished Shirt Quilt #2. 

The main difference is the rotation of the 9 patches, and the quilting.

This makes finish #16 for the year.

I have two more shirt quilts almost finished.
They have been quilted for awhile now, they just need binding put on.

I'll get that on tomorrow and then I will have two more finishes for the year.
Then I will only have one shirt quilt left to finish.
I can feel these being done in plenty of time for Christmas.

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First of the 9 Patch Quilts Finished

 I finally got the binding on this quilt this afternoon.

  That makes two complete quilts for my shirt quilt project. 

 And finish #11 for the year.

  Yay!!

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Shirt Quilt #1 Finished

 I finished the quilting over the weekend and had a chance to put the binding on this morning.

 This quilt is made from 19 different striped shirts and one yellow oxford shirt.

The only part that isn't a shirt is the binding and the backing.

This was my first time trying circle feathers.  I rather enjoyed them.

I was going to go with a solid blue fabric for the binding but then decided to go with this striped fabric from my stash.

This makes finish #9 for the year.

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I have also started quilting shirt quilt #2

I had it draped over the couch to make sure I was liking where this design was going and my husband was impressed with how the block changes as I add each set of quilting lines.  He said I should take a photo of these three blocks in progress, little did he know I had already done it.  :)

The rest of the quilting on this will have to wait till next week though.

I need to spend the rest of this week working on some client quilts.

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