Steps three to six of the quilt

If you remember my last quilt update, I had finished sewing my 324 6" squares into 108 rows of 3.
(3) This morning I sewed all my rows of three into 36 nine-piece squares. I was very specific in the placement of the colours in the squares. You will see the reason in a minute.

(4) I then took all of the nine patches and cut them into quarters (I found it easiest to fold the square in half and iron a crease, then do the same for the other direction. It was much simpler than trying to measure the exact middle.



(5) After the pieces were cut, I had to lay them painstakingly on the floor and figure out which design I wanted to create.I knew that I needed 12 blocks by 12 blocks. It took me quite a while before I was happy with it. I'm not good at "random", so I put them the way I wanted them, and then changed a few out here and there to create a more random feel.



(6)When I finally got all the pieces where I wanted them, I made stacks for each row, using sticky notes to indicate the top and outside edges of each row, so there would be no confusion when I'm sewing. Lastly, I used binding clips to hold each row together. I now have a nice neat stack ready for me to start sewing in the morning.

steps one and two of the quilt

So I started actually working on the quilt for my parents today.
(1) I got all of the 324 squares cut out (2) and then sewed them into rows of three. They are in a funky little stack on my sewing table. These will be sewn into nine patches to create a Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt similar to these ones. I haven't decided how I will put them together to make the pattern, but I have the nine patches all set to go. I need to sew together my rows of three, cut them apart, and then lay them out to make whatever pattern I decide to go with, then sew those together, then sandwich the backing, batting and top, then quilt it, then bind it, then make the story patch...yeah, I'm almost done!  For general instructions, check out the Obsessively Stitching blog.