We attended a wedding and a baby shower in Tahoe a few weeks ago. My niece and her husband came up from San Diego so we were able to celebrate them and their baby.
Erin opening quilt
Erin opening quilt #2
Erin opening quilt #3
Erin opening quilt #4
Erin opening quilt #5
Erin opening quilt #6
Erin opening quilt #7
I gave them the Diagonal Nine Patch. I was super gratified at how well the quilt was received. My niece did like the storage bag I made for the quilt very much. She said she might keep it and use it for her own purposes. 😉
Lee & Diagonal 9 Patch
Lee & Diagonal 9 Patch #2
Lee & Diagonal 9 Patch #3
I was worried that the baby’s dad wouldn’t like it, but he pointed out the quilting thread color right away and really liked it. I was very relieved.
One of the other nephews said he thought this quilt might be my best ever! I didn’t tell him I got the design from Peggy! I am glad this quilt was a success. The happy couple received three quilts total.
The Diagonal Nine Patch is finished. I am really pleased with how it came out. Of course, Colleen’s quilting makes it, but my choice of the various white on black fabrics looks really good, too. Even though the blacks have little to no contrast, the variety of prints makes each square stand out well.
I am also pleased with the striped binding. Striped binding is the best and I am glad I am able to use some of the stripes I have been saving.
I really like this pattern. I think it has a lot of potential. I got an idea for one of the Niece-phews quilts I have been meaning to make from making this quilt.
Diagonal Nine Patch back – Finished
I do like the back. That large print on the left is really good. I am also pleased with my use of it. Some prints are great as they are – not cut up.
A number of these prints were leftover from the Cityscape (Black & Red Improv) quilt. I am glad I used them. They have been sitting around for awhile.
I finished the Diagonal Nine Patch just in time. The baby shower is this weekend. I may have just enough time to make a storage bag for the quilt. We’ll see.
Colleen sent the Diagonal Nine Patch back. It will definitely be ready in time to head to the baby shower.
I like the quilting she did. The swirls in colored variegated thread look happy. Colleen does a great job and I am really happy to be getting some quilts back in the finishing loop.
Diagonal Nine Patch – back detail
The quilting is more obvious on the back despite the active prints I used.
I also think that the striped binding looks great. I have some time to sew it down while I wait for La Pass Month 13 to arrive.
I want to use this pattern again with 2.5 inch squares, but also one with larger squares such as 5 inch squares.
I finished the back of the Diagonal Nine Patch Saturday morning before I drove to the BAM meeting. I found a piece of fabric that comprises the main part of the back (top left). The large print works well for a back and I am glad I didn’t cut it up for the front.
I used up a number of pieces of fabric that have been hanging around for awhile, which is always a good feeling.
Diagonal 9 Patch top
I am pretty pleased not only that the whole package is ready to go to Colleen, but also that there were no tasks hanging around for after the meeting. It felt like a clean finish.
I chose a black and white stripe for the binding.
I worked on the back for 20 minutes or so on Friday after cleaning out the garage and that 20 minutes put everything in place for finishing on Saturday. Every minute counts!
This is a pretty easy quilt so as soon as I finished all the bits and pieces required to make Pies & Points ready for quilting, I turned my attention to the Diagonal Nine Patch. I talked about the size in my last post and, as you can see, I increased the size. I think this size will be fine, but am still reserving judgement.
With 7×7 blocks, the quilt top will be about 42 inches square and my hesitation is whether that is a large enough quilt. I think it is on the verge of being large enough, but I may want to add another column and row.
I have about 7 more blocks to go in this configuration. The issue is that I am eager to get this quilt done and move on to Orange You Glad. I also want to bring this quilt to Colleen.
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
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
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.
