I'm doin' it. Are you?

I'm talking about the Nine-Patch Project, of course!

During the course of the summer, grab some fabric - anything - your scraps, some fat quarters, something from your stash, or heaven-forbid run out and buy some fabric at the quilt shop! Then make one nine-patch block every day throughout the summer. Read Karen Montgomery's June 1st blog for more details.

As I understand it, there's no Nine-Patch Police, so even though this whole thing started on June 1st, you really can start any time. You can play catch up and make three blocks today, or make two nine-patches for the next three days and you'll be right on track. Or just start today. By the end of the summer you should have a bunch of nine patches - if you count one for each day of June, July, and August, that's 92 blocks!

You can follow along on facebook, or watch for more information here. 

For my blocks, I went scrounging around in my ScrapTherapy bins and found a bunch of 2" batik squares. I pulled out some cream fabric from my stash and rolled up my sleeves. I decided to make nine-patches within nine-patches, so I cut my 2" square twice to make four 1" squares. Then cut 1" squares from my cream fabric (bet this would also look good with black fabric!) and went to the sewing machine.

Once the mini-blocks were sewn, I added more 2" scrap squares to make a 5" unfinished nine patch. For odd days of the month, I'll do a nine patch with five mini nines, and for even days of the month, I'll do a nine-patch with four minis.

Yep, those are tiny pieces of fabric, but I find that every once in a while, it's good to stretch a little bit. Besides, when you piece something small, you have to be accurate. When you have to be accurate, your overall piecing improves. Kinda like being an average Sudoku or crossword player. Then you try your hand at an uber-difficult puzzle. You fail miserably (or at least I do!), but when you go back to the average skill level puzzles, they are so much easier!!

By the way, my blocks have all the tiny squares. Yours can be any size you want, scrappy or not, lights and darks or not, light centers, dark centers, or not. Here's a simple scrappy nine-patch to show you what I mean.



One simple block each day. Now that's not so overwhelming, is it?

See you on the 'back nine!'
Joan