Posts Tagged ‘9 patch’
3-D Nine Patch and a fresh look
Posted on: 4 July 2012
- In: quilting
- 7 Comments
Do you recall – hmm, seems I have been revisiting several past blog entries. *giggle*. I have been wanting to make a quilt using the 3-D NIne Patch blocks as mentioned in this blog entry. I’ve been working on it, as a leader/ender project, and have now more than enough 3 patch units to start making the 9-patch units.
I don’t know if many of you have organized your scraps… or do you even keep them? Well, I’ve been making a dent in the 1½” strips and bits I had… err, well, I though it was a dent, but I think they reproduce when we are not looking!
I decided that I was going to count the dark and light 3 patch units I have made thus far. Are you ready for this. Here are some statistics of this quilt.. even before I have started making the blocks!
- Size of block 8″
- Number of blocks in quilt 80 ( 8 x 10)
- Number of pieces per block 45
- Number of 9-patches required – 240
- Number of dark 3 patch units required – 480
- Number of light 3 patch units required – 240
- Size of each 9-patch unit – 3″
- Size of each 9 patch square – 1″
- Number of pieces for quilt before borders – 3600
- Number of unfinished light and dark 3 patch units – haven’t counted
- Nmber of 1½” strips and bits – too many – hmm… maybe a log-cabin quilt in the future
Sure is a lot of stats for a quilt that has only just begun taking shape! LOL. Oh, and before you ask… no I have not kept track of the hours, now wouldn’t that have been an interesting statistic!
I had cut some fabric to make a mock-up of the block, to see how it would look, and possibly to figure out how to put it together. Okay, the putting it together part didn’t happen at that time. Here are a few ideas for the mock-up.
And just in case I included the black and white of the above photo:
After I had started piecing light and dark pieces together, the idea occurred to me, that going completely scrappy for each part of the 9patch may be a bit much, so I played with the idea of scrappy, but each block would have all the same dark patches, and all the same light patches. I did like it, but I liked the scrappiness better! Who knows, maybe a smaller more planned scrappy quilt may come later. – I don’t think so! LOL
When I was getting close, or at least my zipper plastic bags were getting somewhat fuller, I thought I would stitch up the mock-up, and figure out how to put the thing together. Little did I know how many set-in seams there were going to be!!! OH WAIT… another statistic
- Set-in seams per block – 12 (I think)
- Set-in seams for the quilt – 960!! (I must be crazy!)
Don’t look to closely, the small setting triangles are not put on properly. Something I am going to have to work out! The set-in seams for the mock-up are far from perfect, but I did figure out how to construct these blocks. I’m a bit aways before I will be constructing the whole block, but who knows, I may get tired after stitching several hundred 3patch units together, and I may get some blocks going after I have a pile of 9-patch units ready.
You know, I probably should take a break from all this piecing and get some quilts finished, or I’m going to be buried by quilt tops! To be honest, last week I decided I was going to take a quilt that has been sandwiched for 18 months, and quilt it today at my quilting group. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very well prepared, and I just grabbed the two totes for the 3D 9-patch quilt. Okay, I totally forgot about the quilting! That’s okay, because if I hadn’t taken the 3D 9-patch with me today, I wouldn’t have come up with all those statistcs. OH! I may have miscalculated or miscounted, and I’m okay with that. Maybe I should edit the above statistics to read “Approximate”! HA! I’ve just written it here, so if you have read this far, you found a surprise! *giggle*
-Alice
Food for thought – Have you changed or updated your blog recently or at any time? I’ve been wanting to, and well, today I did it. I’m not sure about the theme I have chosen, but it is good for now. I’m not too keen, that I cannot include a photo of some of my work in the background. My DD#2 suggested I should learn JAVA so I can write/design my own page. If I had the time, to sit down, I could figure it out. (I do have a computer programming background) Its just having the gumption to do so, and the time to do so. Tell me your thoughts on this new layout.
- In: quilting
- 17 Comments
I was visiting Bonnie K. Hunter’s blog, checking her posts, and someone had sent her a request on a particular block. I decided I would thumb through my book of 5500 Quilt Blocks from Maggie Mahone, (if you visit the link, scroll down the page, you will see some of the actual pages from the book) when I discovered a few gems. I should note, that every once in awhile, I look for something in the book, and see something that intrigues me. If only I had really gotten into quilting 40 years ago, maybe I could make all the quilts I want to. Um… wait a moment, it was about 38 years ago, I started my first patchwork quilt… which still remains unfinished! Ohh… back on subject.
Well the block that really caught my eye today, is called 3D nine patch. Now the thing with the book, is it gives you the name of the block, and shows you an image, but that is all you get. The block has three 9-patch units with sashing, on point.
I decided I would draft out this block on 1/4″ graph paper. It was going well, until I brought the wrong ruler (metric), which makes using accurate measurements a bit difficult. It looked okay, but I knew that if I was to use the measurements from what I had drawn out, the block would not be very accurate. DS#2, suggested I draw the 9patch units “square” to the paper, and then draw the setting triangles after.
Seemed like a reasonable plan. I had an idea that the 9patch pieces would finish at 1″. So I drew them at 1/2 scale into a 4″ block…. or so I thought. Yes, the 9-patch units are 3″ finished… but… the block is now 4¼” instead of 4″. Hmmm.
Next, I took two pieces of graph paper, laid them side by side, to make a larger piece. If I was going to draw out an 8″ block, and draw the 9-patches first, I was going to need a much bigger piece of paper.
Off I started drawing again. And it is looking pretty good. Measured the block… 8½”… hmmm. Apparently going to the size I want, is still not going to work. One of things I forgot was that when things are on-point, their “dimensions” change, they are not the same size you expect. A 1″ square is not 1″ across when you put it on its point. n (LOL I just checked… and it is 1 3/8″). I looked at the block I had drawn out… how am I going to get it to be a finished 8″. I wonder if EQ6 might be able to handle the job. I draft out a number of my quilts, primarily for yardage estimates, but occasionally, I will alter blocks, or create one if I can’t find what I’m looking for.
It took me a bit, to figure out how I was going to divide a 2″ space into 3 equal parts. Drawing it wasn’t working, how do you measure 0.6667″. I could guestimate, but it still wouldn’t be accurate enough. I found I could change the “snap points” in EQ6, which means I could divide a 2″ space into 6 parts. Woohoo!
I thought this block would be a good one to do scrappy, although the background and sashings would have to be purchased.
I then used EQ6 to play with layouts
then colours
as I was altering the quilt to be a bit more scrappy for the dark units, I discovered that the block if rotated a bit more, looks like a heart!
I am considering using Bonnie’s Leader and Ender method to create the 9patches, sewing them in strips, then cross-cutting to get the patches. This would be a project that would fill in while working in other projects, that are less scrappy. I think I just convinced myself this quilt is going to be started sooner than I anticipated. What better way to get it going than using the Leader and Ender method. And my scraps could always use a good clearing out! I think they multiply when I’m not in the quilt-n room. I guess I will need to start going through, and then cutting strips of 1½”! These quilts are “small”, if the blocks are 8″, but I’m sure with the Leader and Ender method, I could have lots of 9patch units to create a much larger quilt, and use up more of the scraps!
-Alice
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