Nine Patch X quilt + Nine Patch Revolution Book Review

I'm a real sucker for a new take on a classic quilt block.  Especially a nine patch block - you can do SO much with it!  So when I saw that Jenifer Dick and Angela Walters had written a book all about nine patch blocks I just knew I'd love it.

And on my first flip through the pages I knew immediately which quilt I wanted to make first - the Nine Patch X.

I always love an opportunity to dig through my scrap bins!

The blocks were quick to make, and fun to customize.  I chose to use low volume squares in the corners of each block to give the finished quilt a lattice look.

Here's what the original Nine Patch X quilt from the book looks like:  



Gorgeous with all of those colorful scraps, right?  There are 20 fantastic quilt projects in this book so it's a great value!  

One thing I love about Nine Patch Revolution is all of the quilting tips.  Seriously sometimes I finish a quilt and then it just sits there for awhile because I'm stumped on how to quilt the thing!  Every project in the book has it's own section for quilting ideas and tips from Angela Walters including step by step instructions and diagrams.

All of Jenifer's projects are quilts, ranging from baby size to bed size (and we're talking like 90" x 90" here!)

The book talks all about nine patch basics of course, but I love all of the spin-offs - the unique ideas that still technically are nine patch blocks but don't look like it, like this one called Plaid:

and the Nine Patch X quilt:

Two of my other favorites are the Nine Patch Chain:

And the Streaked Lightening quilt (it's easier than it looks!) 

 And then there's 16 more nine patch quilts to love too!  You can find the Nine Patch Revolution books here in Jenifer's shop.  


Happy quilting everyone!   --Andy

How Delightful!

So I gave myself a couple weeks off.  I slept in.  I read a lot.  I did sneak in a little pattern designing here and there.  We spent a lot of time as a family just hanging out and playing.  We celebrated Christmas and New Years and did so with all of our fun family traditions (except making gingerbread houses.  That one just did not happen this year.)  It has been delightful!  And now it’s time to get back to reality, right? 

Everyone heads back to school and work on Monday and we adopt some sort of schedule once again.  Confession time: I’m looking forward to it. 



In the past couple of weeks I’ve started a just-for-me project and I’m really excited about it.  I’ve been working on it slowly here and there.  It started with pulling this stack of fabrics from my stash.  That’s 49 different prints to be exact.  I was a little lacking on the red blenders but a quick trip to my local quilt shop fixed that.   



I’m pairing these rainbow prints with some low volume prints – each colored rectangle gets one little low vol square in each corner.  I love the bright colors/low volume combo!   
 


Alright I’m off to enjoy the last couple of days of our vacation (and fold laundry).  Someone has to do it, right?

Making Progress

So this project is one that I started about four months ago and have been working on it slowly (SLOOOOO…WWW….LLLLY)  since then. 

These solid fabrics were sent to me by the lovely people at American Made Brand and I’ve enjoyed creating with them!  I just love the combination of vibrant solids with scrappy low volume prints so that’s what I’ve gone with for this project.  (You can see my first post about American Made Brand cotton solids here.)

 

Each 8.5” square has four (2.5”) squares of low volume inside.  Last night I was playing around with the layout and I think I’ve finally settled on this.  Whaddaya think?  Anything stand out to you in the picture above?

The next step with this project is to create the sashings that will go between blocks.  I’ll be using more 2.5” squares of low volume along with some longer strips of low vol.  If I’ve done my math correctly (fingers crossed) I should have all of the low volume cut.  Now I just need to put in a good movie and get sewing!

Sun and Surf Quilt - all done!

I gave a sneak peek the other day of the finished Sun and Surf quilt - but here's the full quilt!  It's chock full of scrappy yumminess.  My most favorite part is the fact that it was made by 9 creative women and their lovely stashes.

I've mentioned it before, but in case you're new around here, I'm a member of the Imagine group of Do. Good Stitches.  [Read more about Do. Good Stitches here]  Honestly, being a quilter for a Do. Good Stitches group is one of the most fulfilling parts of my year.

Back in March I asked each group member to make two blocks using scrappy mint and coral, with scrappy low volume backgrounds.  And boy did they!  It's always such a treat to open my mailbox and find two lovely blocks there waiting for me!

[By the way, the free block tutorial can be found here]

Once I had received all of the blocks I dug through my low volume scraps for the sashing and borders.  I used some scrappy coral bits for the posts and again for the binding.  Don't you just love a scrappy binding??  

I used a solid minty blue on the backing and used an all-over swirl quilting design.  I wanted to give the quilt a lot of motion.  It already had a lot because of the block design, but the swirls add even more!

So with one more DGS quilt completed, it's about time to start another!  September is my month to choose a block so I'm currently on the hunt for a fun block idea.  If you'd like to see more of the finished quilts made by all of the DGS groups, you can see them all here in this flickr group.

American Made Brand Cotton Solids

 So I’m a gardener.  Did I ever mention that?  I love growing things.  Usually by about February I have my garden for that year all planned out.  I’d have a sketch of what will be planted where, I’d have my seeds selected and figured out the dates when each thing should be planted.  I love every step of that process.

Not so much this year.  It’s already nearing the end of May and I have just recently started thinking about what I’m going to plant.  It’s just one of those years.  I did buy a tomato plant the other day, but I didn’t get it in the ground soon enough, nor did I bother to water it.  So I’m fairly sure that it’s dead now.  I have planted some onions and some carrots so far and they’re doing well.  I really do love to grow things.

About a month or so ago I heard about this new American Made Brand of cotton solids from Clothworks.  I was very interested.  As you can see here on their website, this is All-American fabric – not just made here, but grown here as well.  That completely appeals to me. 

I’ve had a fat quarter stack of American Made Brand solids waiting for me in my sewing room for a couple of weeks.  It was just so pretty- I had to let it sit there as I thought about what the perfect project would be.  I love those vibrant colors! 

And now, I finally decided on how I’d like to use that fat quarter stack.  Yesterday I pulled out some low volume prints to go along with the solids:

And I finally cut into those fat quarters!

I’ve set aside some time on Wednesday to start piecing these into squares.  If you follow me on Instagram you might catch a sneak peek or two! 

To read more about American Made Brand fabrics go here, here or here.