9 Patch Quilt Top Completed

Way back at the end of April, Amandajean over on crazy mom quilts started hosting a one-a-day 9 patch quilt along.  I figured one quilt block per day was certainly doable, so I signed up.

By the end of the 10 weeks, I had the seventy 9 patch quilt blocks completed.

And there they sat on the top of that filing cabinet all through the summer and into the fall.  I’m usually pretty good at picturing in my mind how I want a project to look once it’s finished.  But no matter how hard I tried, I simply couldn’t picture how those blocks would look all laid out and sewed together with the sashing.

Then one day a couple of weeks ago, I decided that I’d just laid them all out on the living room floor and go from there.  And within minutes it all came together.  Funny how things work that way sometimes.

So over the next four days, I sewed blocks and sashing together into strips and then sewed more sashing onto those strips.

While I was cutting squares for the 9 patch blocks, I cut an extra 20 of each colour, so I had more than the 442 squares needed to make the scrappy border.   It took me all of one afternoon to sew those squares into the four strips of fabric needed for that border.  But by the time that was done, I could see the end and the next day it didn’t take me any time at all to sew the outer border strips onto the quilt top.

I’m new to quilting and this is the largest quilt top I’ve made so far.  Now that it’s done, I must say that I am really pleased with the way it turned out.

We had a bit of a challenge getting pictures of it, because every time I was just about to click the button, this happened:

Here are a couple of close ups of some of the squares.  I really like the way the sashing and the scrappy border makes all the 9 patches come together.

It’s so bright and cheerful and I’m looking forward to getting it finished so that we can use it.  But that will have to wait until later this winter.  We’re having a mostly handmade Christmas again this year, so I’m busy working on other projects.

9 Patch Quilt Along Blocks Completed

Back in April, Amandajean from Crazy Mom Quilts started a one-a-day quilt along, in which participants would complete one 9 patch quilt block per day resulting, at the end of 10 weeks, with 70 finished scrappy 9 patch blocks.

I soon discovered that I didn’t have nearly enough fabric scraps to make a truly scrappy quilt as I had purged my fabric stash when we moved from Hawaii to Florida and then again when we moved from Florida to Georgia.  To complicate matters even further, as I began cutting 2 1/2″ squares and picturing in my mind how they would go together, I decided I wanted an anchor fabric in the center of each square to tie all the finished blocks together.  That meant that even some of the fabric scraps I did have couldn’t be used because they didn’t match well with that fabric.

However, at the end of the ten weeks, with the leftover fabric scraps I had on hand and some purchased (after rummaging through every remnant bin at every fabric store around) I managed to complete 70 blocks.

As you can see, I chose 10 different fabrics for the contrasting squares and then made up 7 blocks in each.  While I was cutting squares, I also cut out 20 extra of each to be used for the border.

On one of my trips to search for matching fabrics, I was lucky enough to find more of the center fabric and purchased enough of that to use for the sashing.  But that will have to wait for another day.  For now, I’m just pleased to have completed the 70 blocks needed for the quilt.

How to Hide Your Fabric Stash

This week Amandajean over at crazy mom quilts has posted the first block of her latest quilt-a-long. Even though I haven’t finished the last quilt-a-long, I’ve decided to take part in this one. For a pic of my completed blocks from the previous quilt-a-long, check my post What do Writers Do When They’re Not Writing? (I’ve actually turned what was going to be that quilt top into three smaller projects. I’ll post photos of those soon.)

I haven’t had a chance to complete this week’s block but if you’re visiting through the link in Amandajean’s side-bar, I thought I’d share this bit of fabric humour.

Fortunately I’ve never had to employ any of the suggestions below because Dave knew going into our marriage that sewing and fabric were a part of my life. After all, I sewed my wedding dress. He’s never complained about my passion for all things fabric. In fact several years ago, he built shelves for me on which to stack my dozen or so file boxes filled with fabric. However, if you have more fabric than will fit in a dozen file boxes, you may find this list useful.

Enjoy!

How to Hide Your Fabric Stash

1.  Fold it larger and put it evenly under the mattress – you can get a hundred yards under there! There’s no chance the hubby will find it – how often does he make the bed?

2.  You can also fold some and put is under each chair and sofa cushion.

3.  Hang the yardage on a coat hanger, then cover it with a piece of clothing – hence, 100 coat hangers/100 yds of fabric. (3 closet = 300 yards)

4.  Get a large trash can, remove the cover and have someone cut a round piece of plywood out for you. Put stash in trash can, put on wooden cover, place a pretty 70″ round tablecloth (or sew two 2 yard pieces together lengthwise and “pretend” its a tablecloth) on it – a beautiful lamp on top and who’s to know it’s full of fabric? (A good way to hide the ironing too)

5.  If you have a space under the bed, buy some of the underbed storage containers and fill them.

Now when you’ve bought more fabric than you can store in these five ways, you just aren’t sewing enough!

But remember, if you have 3 or 4 bedrooms, with a closet and covered trash can table in each one and replace the living room end tables with one, that is a LOT of fabric hidden.

Now get the teakettle on and invite your friends and let them see your neat house.

*Note: A local quilt shop had this printed up and sitting on the cutting table as give aways. No author was listed, but if you know the original author please let me know so that I can add her by-line.