Thatcher's Disappearing Nine Patch Baby Quilt and Tutorial - Needlework Monday
My nephew, Thatcher, was born a few weeks before Christmas, so I knew I needed to make him a quilt! My parents decided to come visit early in January, so that made a great way for me to get the quilt to him! I was happy to pull out the fabric I had been waiting to use and get to work on his tiny baby quilt!
The first thing I did was decide on the fabric. I had a small stack of coordinating flannel fabrics that I knew would make cute baby boy quilt. Thankfully I had bought another yard or so of another coordinating fabric to add to it, because there were enough squares to make a hand towel size! Ha! It would have been tiny!
I decided on the disappearing nine patch pattern because it's super easy and my favorite to do! So I sewed all the patches into 9 patch squares to start. That just means I made a row of three, did that three times, then sewed it together to make a nine patch block.
Iron the seams flat to one side on the back (quilting is the only time I ever take out my iron in life). Then comes the nerve wracking part. All those nine patches that you sewed together, you will now cut in half!! So find the middle of the middle square, line up your ruler, and cut down the center with your rotary cutter (or scissors). Turn each side piece to the center of the middle piece and cut again, right down the middle.
Sit back and wonder what you've done, but just wait for the magic! You should end up with 4 blocks cut from each 9 patch block.
Decide how you want to sew your quilt together with all the blocks. The designs are limitless with this block. You can make them all point the same direction, point different directions, intersect in the middle, etc. I tried many different ways and finally decided to just do random and try not to get any two patterns of fabric next to each other.
I decided to do a plain back for the quilt, which is not something I usually do. I added his name to the back with my embroidery machine. I love the way it turned out. I then took a few weeks off from quilting and had it just sitting in my craft room...until I realized the next day was when my parents would be here, so I frantically finished it up - getting the quilt sandwich, quilting, and binding all done!
I did my usual all over free motion (stippling) to quilt it together. This is my favorite, but it definitely eats up the thread! The end result turned out really cute! I'm very happy with it and was glad to pass it along to him!
Even Thatcher was happy with the final result of the quilt...although he doesn't look very happy in this picture! Ha!
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BEAUTIFUL!!
I was just thinking about you the other day! Welcome back to steemit!
Thanks for the welcome. ;)
Oh wow, I never would hav ethought to cut them up and re-sew them like that! What a cool idea!
It's my favorite pattern! So easy, but looks really nice! It's one of the first patterns I did and it just stuck with me as a favorite.
Gorgeous quilt, lucky Thatcher! It's so nice seeing you back again :)
Thanks! :) I don't know how much I'll post, but I was glad to finish this and add it to my quilting posts. :)
Yay I was so happy to see this post! This quilt is just right for a baby boy! Now I see what you meant when you told me I was on my way to making a quilt that day my mom had us sewing patches together. I like the different size squares/rectangles that came from cutting the square into four pieces. Good job on this! Your nephew is sooo cute!!
Thanks! :) He is cute! I hope to meet him someday while he is still small! I have a niece who is already over 1 and I haven't met her yet. The challenges of living abroad...
Love the quilt! Never sewed with flanel - is it easy to sew or does it act out like velvet or other fabrics that doesn't want to be sewn sometimes? I always enjoyed the feeling when I deactivated the safety thingie on the rotary cutter and got ready to cut: on one side eager to go on, looking forward to how the result will look, on the other side always a bit terrified that I would cut wrong ;)
Sewing with flannel is super easy! It does shrink though, so I'm sure I should have prewashed it...but I didn't. :) It is scary to just cut into the fabric. I've had some measuring mistakes in the past and that is pretty annoying!
Nice work! Is it still rainy season down there? That's a good time to be inside working on projects. :-)
We are in dry season! It's super windy some days, but those days the rainbows usually come out. We had rain 2 weeks ago, but that's it. It was when my parents came and of course, our house started leaking!! It was crazy. We have dry season from Christmas until April.
Yay! A new post from you! Great quilt! The idea of cutting up the perfectly acceptable squares just floored me! It turned out great, my brain hurts trying to make sense of it though. 😁
Yes, I know! This pattern where you have to cut the already made patches is so crazy, but I just love the way it turns out. It looks really hard, but it's sooo simple! There's also a disappearing 4 patch that I want to try where you cut the squares twice in the middle. It looks really cute, but I just haven't done it yet. :)
That sounds ultra complex! Good luck when you do it!
Out of all your posts, these are my favorite ones. Thank you for letting me read another chapter in your family quilt book.
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:) Glad you like these posts. I love making quilts, but I just don't have the time right now!
That looks lovely! How long did it take you to make it? Do you buy those squares as they are, or do you cut the pieces? I've always wanted to make a quilt. I was hoping to one day do it with my kids, on a huge table, like in that movie (can't remember the name), by hand...
Hopefully we'll get to do it before they're off to college lol.
I'm sure I told you this before, but the memory of me wanting to do this just came back seeing this. Thatcher is one lucky baby with such a lovely aunt!
I did buy the squares precut for the most part. I had to add a little extra. Usually I cut all the pieces out myself. It took me a while because I put it away for a few weeks, but really it was pretty small and super easy to make. I'd say around 8 hours or so from start to finish. Quilting by hand is a big job! I did one patch one time and decided that wasn't for me, but I have a friend who made a twin size by hand and she was happy with it. It would be a great project to do with the kids!