Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Disappearing 9 Patch

This is one of my favorite quick quilts and a great beginner quilt to learn on. This quilt finished at 36" x 48", but can be made different sizes very easily.


You will need 9 charm squares (5' x 5" squares) per 4 - 6" blocks. I made 12 - 9 patch blocks. which was 108 charm squares. When the 9 patches are cut up and resewed together the blocks will finish at 12".

1. Sew your charm squares together into a 9 patch (3 x 3). The corners will be the whole squares so if you have big prints you want to showcase that where to put them. Press the seams open, a little Best Press wouldn't hurt since these blocks are going to be cut up again. This 9 Patch will measure 14" x 14".

2. Cut the block in half both horizontally and vertically. Use the seams as guides to get the exact center (thanks to my friend Gail for the reminder), measuring 2.25" from each of the center seams. Cut into 4 pieces.

3. You will have 4 - 6.5" squares that look like this


4. Now comes the fun part. Once you have all of your blocks cut lay them out in a pleasing manner and remember to mix them up (meaning you don't have to keep the pieces cut from the same 9 patch together), the skies the limit here. 

You can have them all going the same direction like this


Or so that no seams have to match (this is a great layout to learn on)


Or in a different pattern such as this. It's called top right, bottom left (for lack of better words). This is how I learned.


5. Then simply sew your blocks together in rows and then the rows together.

6. Quilt and bind and you have a quick and easy quilt!

Here's a pic of another Disappearing 9 Patch quilt that I made.