Diagonal Nine Patch Baby Quilt

Peggy's Diagonal Nine Patch
Peggy’s Diagonal Nine Patch

I got this idea from Peggy at the June BAM meeting. It was so simple that I slapped my head and wondered why I didn’t think of it.

Peggy is font of good ideas. The quilt she showed was scrappy and had a rose background. It was great and made me start thinking about my newest great niece-phew. S/he is expected in October.

I wanted to make the new baby a quilt, but nothing was generating any excitement. I wasn’t finding the mix of interesting patterns, ease of construction and appeal in the millions of patterns I have. When I saw this one, I felt a flicker of interest.

B&W Diagonal 9 Patch
B&W Diagonal 9 Patch

I decided to try some blocks in black and white and see what happened. I made them while working on Pies & Points.

I am really pleased with how they look. Most of the fabrics came from my bin of white on black dot fabrics. I got those out after I rummaged through my 2.5 inch square bins and pulled out all the white on black squares. Recently I have pulled out another bin of white on black fabrics to make more blocks. This is a great quilt for scraps, as you can see from Peggy’s version. Also, my black and white blocks are a controlled scrappy.

I started with the idea that I would make 18 A and 18 B blocks. I made most of the 18 blocks using the leaders and enders method while I worked on Pies & Points. Once that baby was finished, I put the Diagonal Nine Patch blocks up on the design wall. The blocks aren’t sewn together, but I decided I needed more blocks. I need to make at least one more column and one more row, but maybe two. I like generous baby quilts.

B&W Diagonal 9 Patch - A and B blocks
B&W Diagonal 9 Patch – A and B blocks

Once the blocks were pointed out to me, I could see how easy the quilt could be. The A block is highlighted on the left and the B block is in the middle. 

You can certainly use all squares, but I decided to save myself some time and figured out the size of strips I needed to use for the A blocks. It makes those blocks sew up a little bit more quickly.

The beauty of this design is that it can be made with 2.5 inch squares, 5 inch squares or any size really. One inch finished would take a lot of blocks unless you were making a doll quilt, but would be a great leaders and enders project. If you used blocks that were larger than 5 inches, it would be a great way to make a large quilt quickly. I am not sure if the design would show up very well, however.