WHW RS Sampler Quilt Class: Block 4: Disappearing Nine Patch (Sliced Blocks)

Our 4th block for Quilt Class is a fun one!  It's called the Disappearing Nine Patch.  This block is super easy and if you make a whole bunch you end up with an awesome quilt that looks much more complex than it really is (read:  impress all your friends with your mad quilting skills).  Same with the two alternate blocks.  :)

I found this image on Pinterest (it's from a lady's Facebook page) that pretty much sums up how to make it:  (Once again - ALL photos in this post are linked to their original source.)

Quiltville's Open Studio on Facebook

There are a couple different ways to layout your block (assuming you make your original nine patch in a checkerboard fashion):

Felt Magnet

However, the look may change quite a bit depending on how many different colors you use in your quilt.  The most common layout seems to be this one with three colors (corners all one color, middle square a different color, the rest background).  Or something with five different colored squares; or something with opposite corners the same (4 colors including background) - just as long as you keep the checkerboard look.  (This block definitely works even if you don't follow the checkerboard rule, though!!)

Neighborhood Quilt Club

If you're looking to cut your fabric ahead of time, you'll need nine 5" squares for the 12" block, or nine 4" squares for the 9" block.  For an awesome SIZING CHART (so you can make these blocks in any size), check out this post here:  Ravenfea

And here are a bunch of examples of the disappearing nine patch blocks in quilts.

This is the most common layout (this particular nine patch was made with three colors - opposite corners were the same color, and every other block had either pink or black centers):

Borderline Quilter

And a few more, just for fun:

Chucklemops

The Sewing Chick

Sometimes Crafter

Piece N Quilt

Cluck Cluck Sew

Outside the Line

For our Alternate Block, I'm actually going to give you BOTH of these (I couldn't decide).

Disappearing Four Patch:

Bento Box:

These alternate blocks are also super fun.  Here are a few pics of quilts with Disappearing Four Patches:

Flourishing Palms

Porch Swing Quilts

For an excellent tutorial for making a disappearing four patch (WITH INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING THEM ANY SIZE!!!), check out this link here:

Craftsy

And a few Bento Box quilts:

Constanca Cabral

Modern Cozy

A Quilting Jewel

ME!!

I ended up with four blocks, since there are two alternates and I made my Bento Blocks using the two-at-a-time method:

And here are the handouts from last night:  WHW RS Quilt Class:  Block 4: Disappearing Nine Patch

Finished Bento Box Quilt - Feels Good!

Isn't it just a great feeling to be all the way finished with a quilt?  This quilt has been such a huge undertaking that getting to the finish line has been a little strange.
I actually finished last night, and today I didn't know what to do with myself!  I may or may not have watched several episodes of Gilmore Girls (I won't tell you how many I watched in a row - but it was somewhere between 3 and 5).
Finally I trooped outside with this gigantic (and HEAVY) quilt.  It hasn't been very sunny today - but as soon as I realized the weather was getting WORSE, I decided it's now or never.

So here is my finished Bento Box Quilt.  For a minute there I thought it had gotten a lot smaller after quilting.  Then I put it on my bed for perspective.  Nope.  Still huge.  93" x 106".

I went with an overall meandering quilt pattern - because it's fast, it's easy, and very forgiving.

There are still tons of puckers.  Here is my worst one.  I figure it won't look so bad after we wash it... :)

I decided to just fold the back over to the front to create binding - once again, it's fast, easy, and somewhat forgiving.  I'm not sure I like it though.  I don't really like the white - it makes the whole thing look a little unfinished.  And because of the back, we get the scrappy look on the sides.  I hope my sister likes the scrappy binding look!

And here's the back (which almost looks like a second front to me...).  It started to get pretty windy at this point.  The red thread really stands out on the white fabric.  Next time I'm not going to worry about getting cute swirly white fabric, cuz you can't see the swirls anyway, now that it is quilted.

Overall, I think everything turned out pretty well.  It looks really good if you stand back and look at the whole picture.

I still think my next quilt will NOT be a king size, though.

Quilt Stats:

Started: Julyish 2011

Finished: November 2011

Fabrics:  All from Joanns, with the exception of the scrap fabrics used for the double wedding rings

Finished Size: 93" x 106"

Recipient:  Younger sister K - for her wedding to J - December 2011

Wedding Rings Quilt Back

I am making progress on my sister's wedding quilt!  My original plan was to have a plain white back with the wedding rings and initials in the middle.  Turns out I grossly underestimated how much fabric I had.
When I went to the store, they were all out of the white swirly fabric I wanted, so I was left with a dilemma.  I knew I needed a few more yards of fabric to cover the back.  I am not very good at making these kinds of decisions, so I just bought three fat eight bundles and sewed them together.  Then I supplemented the rest of the quilt back with everything I had left over from the quilt top.  If I had been thinking clearly, I would have saved some for the binding.  Oops.  I think I might end up doing the "fold over the back and sew it to the front" binding method.  We'll see.

I took this outside, since it is so HUGE and I could never get a good picture of it inside my house.  Turns out that taking outside doesn't make it any less huge.  This is about 2/3rds of the quilt.  But you get the gist:

I have been hard at work quilting this bad baby on my home machine.  Quilting the middle has been pretty difficult, but I am managing - it just takes a bit of wrestling.  And a willingness to accept that there WILL be puckers in this quilt.  I have already discovered some pretty nasty ones on the back.  But I'm kind of on a deadline right now - gotta get this done before the babies come!  Luckily, the quilt is for my sister and I don't think she will care about a few wrinkles.  I usually quilt with rubber gloves on, but with this one, I have to take one of the gloves off so I can feel whether or not I am quilting wrinkles into the back.  Makes it a little harder to move around, but I think it's helping.
Oh yeah - and I tried spray basting for the first time!  I just bought the stuff they had at JoAnns, and it seems to be working pretty well - other than maybe it is part of the whole "wrinkle" problem.  But I think it will be worth it in the end.  I wasn't about to crawl around on the floor to put a thousand pins in a king size quilt while almost 8 months pregnant!

My goal is to finish this by the end of the week!  And then the babies can come.  Wish me luck!

Some Finishes! Curtains and a Bento Box quilt top

It has been a really long time since I last posted.  I blame that on the facts that school has started, I am six months pregnant, and when I'm not too tired I tend to spend my free time sewing!  Or shopping for baby stuff.

But, I do have a couple of recent finishes.  My sister has been wanting new curtains in her bedroom for awhile now.  So I made her some.  They took a bit longer than I expected them to, partly because I wanted to add a little something to them to make them more interesting.  I decided to add a strip of pinwheel blocks.  Because I like pinwheels.  I choose yellow, blue, and green colors and I think they add a nice splash of color that match my sister's personality.  It was SO hard to get a good picture of the slinky forest green fabric I used for the curtains.  I think she will love the curtains.  Here they are hanging on my entertainment center...

My other big finish is the wedding quilt I am making for my OTHER sister.  She's getting married in December - right around the time my babies are due, so I'm feeling the pressure to finish.  Well, I now have a finished quilt top!  And it is HUGE!!!!  Wait till you see what it looks like on our big Queen sized bed!  I wanted it to be big, since the purple and green quilt that has taken residence on our bed is not long enough to tuck in and is constantly getting all twisted up and won't stay put - especially with the tossing and turning of a pregnant woman!
Anyway - here is the quilt top right before I sewed all the blocks together and before I added the border.

This picture is NOT true to color, but it shows a close up of the blocks!

And then I added a border.  I can only get part of the quilt in a picture, so here you go:

At least it will be big enough for her and her 6 1/2 foot fiance!  Now for the back...

Cutting...

I did something scary (when it comes to my quilting world, that is)... I cut into two of my biggest and most expensive stacks of fabric!  Gah!  I hope I didn't mess up... Cutting fabric can be a little scary.  I measured and double checked LOTS of times.

This set is going to by for my in-laws someday (Shhh... don't tell them!) It went from this:

To this:

That's a lot of fabric!  Enough for a King size quilt!

And, of course, I did make one little mistake... I was cutting a group of "D" strips, and I made them too short!  I was so mad, because I was almost finished and didn't have a lot of big pieces left to cut new ones from.  SO I ended up piecing an extra half-inch or so into several of the mess-ups.  Hopefully it's not too obvious.  

I was all set to get started on this quilt, when my sister announced that she is ENGAGED!!!  She is getting married in December and I am beyond excited for her.  I promptly put the Fandango fabric away, got out another set of fabric, and proceeded to hack it up as well.  I hope she likes the colors. 

I went from this (well, actually - this is only half of it - I had to go and buy three more yards to make this one a King size too):

To this!

I'm so excited to be working on a new quilt!  My twin rainbow quilts are almost finished, too.  I'm just waiting for Hubby to actually get off work early enough for us to watch a movie together so I can finish binding the last one!

I started a list of all the projects I want to do.  Just to keep myself on track... maybe I need to add "new ironing board cover" to that list?  Or maybe I should focus on a few important baby items...  The list is over in my sidebar at the very bottom.  Hopefully having it on the blog will keep me motivated!

Oh, and remember this?

And remember how I had my fabric all picked out and ready to go?  Well, sadly, I made the decision that I needed to put it away and save it for another time.  I'm still planning to make the blocks, though.  My doctor seems to think that I will need to quit working at least a month before the babies come.  Maybe I will have a little time for some hand sewing then.  In the meantime, I'm just following along, enjoying what everyone else is creating!