I am the block of the month chair for a guild I belong to (Blackstone Valley Heritage Quilters).  I may have mentioned this guild before.  Instead of giving a different block every month, I decided to focus on ONE block for the year.  I chose a simple nine patch.  There are different ways to color the block.  And they look good by themselves or combined with other blocks.  For just nine “little” squares, they are quiet effective in quilts!

Tomorrow, I will be giving directions for a disappearing nine patch.  I am in love with this technique.  You can use any size nine patch (use the same size for the entire quilt) cut it in half both horizontally and vertically, rearrange and Ta-da a new block!

Nine patch using 6″ cut squares.

Nine patch cut in half both directions

And there are all kinds of different arrangements!  The arrangement below is my favorite.  The directions I’ll be giving out has nine different layouts!  And there are more!

Disappearing Nine Patch

I won’t spoil the unveiling of the quilts I made for the meeting.  SO, check back next week for more photos and arrangements.

#1 – A simple nine patch block can be cut in half both directions to make a NEW block (disappearing nine patch).

#2 – By using the disappearing nine patch    technique, there are fewer seams to sew and fewer pieces to cut.  ( If you were to cut all the pieces individually in the disappearing block shown, you would need 8 rectangles + 4 small squares + 4 large squares.)

in quilting,

Debbie