Sunday, May 3, 2009

Quick Strip Pieced Nine Patch Tutorial

We're getting ready to start the three by three nine patch swap, so I thought it appropriate to quickly post a little tutorial for strip pieced nine patches.

There "seams" to be a nine patch revival in blogland right now.

These instructions are for 6" finished nine patches, but to calculate the strip width for any size, just divide the finished size of your nine patch by three and add 1/2" to the result. For example, for the 6" nine patches, it would be 6 divided by 3, which is 2, plus 0.5. Strip width 2.5".

For the purposes of this tutorial (and the swap), each nine patch will be constructed from only two fabrics.

Cut the fabric into 2.5" strips. The length and number of strips will depend on how many nine patches you wish to make. If you're using scraps, remember that for each block you will need 5 strips of one color and 4 strips of the other, each at least 2.5" long.
Nine Patch Tutorial
Sew the strips together along the long sides as below. If you're making all your blocks identical, you will need twice the length of one strip combination as the other. If you alternate fabrics, you can use even lengths of strips.
Nine Patch Tutorial
Press the seams of one strip set toward the outside and the seams of the other toward the inside. This will reduce bulk when you sew them together.
Nine Patch Tutorial
Cut each three-fabric strip into 2.5" sections.
Nine Patch Tutorial
Lay out the blocks...
Nine Patch Tutorial
...and sew the strip sections together.
Nine Patch Tutorial

11 comments:

  1. yummy fabrics, yummy nine-patch blocks! I discovered they are so easy to make! Love nine=-patches.

    Making dear-jane blocks, makes all the other quilting blocks look like a piece of cake!

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  2. Cute fabrics! Would the light pink be considered a "light" in the swap? I am trying to make sure I don't use a "light" fabric.

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  3. Thanks for the quickie tutorial! Love the sample fabrics you used too. I'm so excited to be in this swap.

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  4. i LOVE 9 patches more and more...they are definitely under rated. :)

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  5. Thanks! This is my kind of piecing!!

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  6. Thank you so much!!! I've admired you table runners for a while!! It's very generous of you to share. :)

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  7. This is great! I've been cutting strips to make 9 patches and I wasn't quite sure how to put them together. Now I know!

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  8. such a clever thing you are
    i have been wanting to make some, now i think i will

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  9. shoot i was going to ask, how long were your strips and how many blocks did you get out of them then?

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  10. I'm jealous, can't make this work for me, something always goes wrong... :(

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  11. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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