"STITCHING MENDS MY SOUL"

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

LAND OF GIANTS

Today I feel like I'm in the Land of the Giants! I'm always making tiny blocks with a million pieces, like DJ and SBS. But today I started my Disappearing Nine Patch Hearts quilt using heart blocks from two swaps I was in last winter. Both the swap on DJ Alternate, called Heart to Heart, or H2H, and the heart swap on my Friendship Swap group had the same guidelines, so the blocks all go together.

You start by making a nine-patch. Since the swaps were 6" squares, the 9-patch was a whopping 18". Huge! The blocks you place in the corners will not be cut, so that's where the hearts go. The center block will end up smallest, so usually you use something darker there.

Here's my first giant 9-patch.

Then you slice it down the center, both vertically and horizontally.

Then you play with the 4 resulting blocks to find an arrangement you like. Here are some of my possibilities, on my design wall.



If your uncut blocks don't have a definite right way up, the possibilities are doubled, or you can start out with two of them (generally diagonally - but there's no rules here) going the opposite direction.
This is really a fun pattern.

7 comments:

Angela said...

Your D9P blocks are GREAT! I love pink, so these are so pretty to me! I know they will make a great keepsake of the swaps they represent!

Rosa Robichaud said...

Pat.. I just LOVE what you'll be doing with your H2H blocks.... and I just HAD to write to tell you that I also ADORE your heading, on your blog...

Those flowers pots are simply ADORABLE!!! *grin*

Rosa

Debbie said...

This has to be one of the best ideas I've seen lately, Pat! It'll work great with all those orphan blocks I have. Thanks for sharing it.

Quiltsmiles said...

Darling quilt. Can't wait to see it finished. Love your idea of using up those "swapped blocks". JAne

Anonymous said...

Great idea. If you turn the top right and bottom left heart blocks upside down and leave the top left and bottm right rightside up, they will be all rightside up when you cut them apart. That is, they will all be "sashed" on the same sides of the block.

Beeshebags said...

Wow, they look great....I might have to give this a try soon. My friend Khristina (From sewprimkhris) sent me the link. Hugs Naomi

Gram999 said...

Wow! I've made the Dis 9 Patch, but never thought to use pieced blocks for some of the sections. Love this idea.

Barb