Allyson's Disappearing 9 Patch

IT is finished. I finished the quilt just a few days after Allyson's birthday. I got a little pooped out and had to take a little time off. I am pretty happy with how it turned out.
I changed it quite a bit from my play originally. I added sashing and used all patterned prints in the blocks. I wanted the random look since I was using so many different prints.

I wanted to practice as many free motion quilting designs that would look good on the quilt. I ended up doing 6 different designs. On the top boarder you can see feathers.

There are two different arrangements of the blocks. I quilted each different.

This one I quilted echo shells in each of the squares. The half and quarter squares I quilted wandering clover.

This block has strait line stitching in the "pinwheel" shape in the center. The other parts have stippling. 

The back side has some of the extra charm squares and some stripes. I used up the extra sashing and binding fabric on the back. 

I learned a lot making this quilt. It was a great way to get some serious practice of free motion quilting in.  Now that it is done I have already started a few other small projects. I'll post those soon.

Disappearing 9 Patch

So, even though I have not finished my Christmas Quilt, I am looking at my daughter's birthday coming up in March and thinking I want to make her a new quilt for her bed. I decided I really like the look of the Disappearing 9 patch.  Basicly to make this you sew 9 patch blocks, then cut each block into 4 pieces. Allowing you to rearrange the pieces and sewing them back together, making it look a lot more complicated. There are different ways to place the blocks to get different looks, but I like making it look like there is sashing around each square.  Here is a good Tutorial  by Amy Gibson, on how the blocks are made for this quilt.
I picked the fabric Curiosities by Nancy Halvorsen for Benartex fabrics.  I bought 3 charm packs. With each charm pack you get 3 florals,  6 green, 8 blue, 10 pink, 8 purple, 3 yellow, and 2 orange prints. Each color has up to 4 different prints (polka dots, swirls, diagonal stripes,etc.)

Some of my calculations come from this posting on the Riley Blake Blog. The orientation of the blocks will be just like that posting as well.According to this and other blogs and information I have found on the Disappearing 9 Patch (D9P), I have figured I will need to start with 24- 9 patches. I am using a white for 4 squares, purple for all my centers, and the other colors in the charm packs for the 4 corner squares.

 Which means I will need: TWIN size

• 96 colored squares (I'm using charm squares)
• 96 white squares
• 24 colored squares (for the center square)

Which means I need: (these measurements are rounded up)

• 3 charm packs
• 2 yards of white 
• 1 1/4 yards border fabric (5.5 inch strips)
• 7/8 yards binding fabric 
• 5 1/2 yards backing fabric

After doing the math and planning on how I want to arrange my blocks, I have found that I am short some colors due to the amounts of each color in the charm packs. ( I am combining the yellows, oranges, and florals as one color. I will refer to it as yellow from here on.)I need 6 more green. Well, I am just going to substitute some fabric from my stash. 

Apparently some of the colors used in this year's fabrics are popular among different designers. I found 2 other fabrics that go perfectly with the Curiosities charms.  

Riley Blake Designs - Small Chevron Girl

Urban Zoologie - Birds in Spring

There are multiple prints from each of these lines that have colors that match. The chevron comes in each of the colors that are in the multi-colored print that I have, plus many more options. 

These are just the prints that I had on hand, I am sure there are other prints that go well with Curiosities also. 

So back to missing some Green squares.  I will cut 6 charms from either the birds or the chevron, or Both.. I haven't decided.  

I will keep you posted on the progress. Now it's time for breakfast before the girls wake up.