NQA Week #3: Making & Squaring the Block

Yay!  Week 3!!!!  :)  This week is a bit tedious, but I promise...it will make next week well worth time and effort you spent cutting and cutting this week.

So, last week I had you make 9 patches.  A 9 patch, as you'll recall, is just a block of 3x3 squares.  Today you're going to cut into your 9 patches so you can create the "disappearing" part of the pattern.  It is a "Disappearing 9-Patch" quilt after all.  Let's get started, shall we?

Step 1:

Start off by taking one of your 9 patches, fold it in half vertically and finger press firmly down the fold.  Then do the same to your 9 patch horizontally.  Finger pressing is exactly what it sounds like...pressing on the fabric with your fingers.  We do this when we don't want a permanent fold in the fabric, like you would get by pressing with an iron.

(Side note:  If this quilt was one where things had to line up VERY precisely...we would be measuring instead of folding and finger pressing.  But, since this quilt top is so busy and something being a tad out of line won't be glaringly obvious...we're not going to create extra work for ourselves.)

Now use those folds as guidelines for your ruler.  Do your best to line up your 9-Patch with the grid lines on your cutting mat just to keep things as straight as possible.  I used the fold lines I made on one of the more prominent lines on the cutting mat to keep everything straight.  I also made sure to see that the block was lining up decently with lines at the sides and top/bottom as well.  It won't be perfect b/c despite how hard we try our seams and original cuts won't always be perfect.  That's okay...we'll correct that in a bit.

Cut on the vertical fold with your rotary cutter (as pictured above).

Step 2:

Now you should have 2  pieces.  Take one at a time and place it on the cutting mat so that your finger fold is on a vertical line on the cutting mat, and your freshly cut side is also lined up flush with a horizontal line on the cutting mat:

Ignore the fact that my piece is not lined up correctly horizontally in the picture.  I did line it up prior to cutting.  My bad.

 Cut on the vertical fold, with your rotary cutter (as pictured above).

This will give you four "Disappearing 9-Patch" blocks from your original 9-Patch:

See how the 9-Patch you originally created just disappears?  Pretty neat, huh?  It looks like you did much more complicated piecing than you had to.  :)  Tricky!!!  (This is why I kept my center square pink in every 9-Patch...so you could see where it was easily from here on out.  And if you chose to use the solid color...it will give it a nifty effect at the end.)

And this is what happens when you don't have enough variety in color to choose from:

It's best if the brown wasn't touching another brown.  This is why I had you buy more fat quarters than I used...if you chose to work with fat quarters.  But, really, you won't notice that this happened once we make the quilt top.  It's not the end of the world.  It just bums me out.  lol

Continue this process with ALL of your 9-patches.  You should end up with 72 or more "Disappearing 9-Patch" blocks...depending on what fabric choice you made at the beginning.

Step 3:

Now we have to square up the blocks.  This will help us to have more accurate seams while piecing our quilt top together as well as helping our blocks to line up more effectively.  This will also be the last "tedious" amount of cutting you do.  YAY!  (Well, until we get to binding at least.  ;))

So, you want your blocks to end up 6.5 inches square.  DO NOT cut off from just 2 sides to make that happen.  You need to trim off a little bit from every side.  

You're cutting mat should have a square in it that has angles and 1/2"grid lines.  This is a great tool for you to use now.  It helps you to keep right angles while you're cutting.  My blocks measured approximately 7", but the sides weren't perfectly straight.  I took off about 1/4" off of each side to make my block 6.5" square.  

 You'll notice in the picture above that I have the top left hand corner squared up with the corner of the square on the cutting mat.  Also if you look closely at the left hand side...you'll notice that the brown is a bit wider than the yellow.  I lined the brown up with the far left line of the mat's square.  This will help to preserve as much of the block as we trim as possible.

Since I am right handed I have my ruler lined up to take a 1/4" off of the right side of the block.  

After you trim a side, rotate your block.  I like to do opposite sides one after the other.  But, you could just keep turning the block around and work in a "circle." Trim, turn, trim, turn....  As you trim, use your freshly cut sides (as they are hopefully the straightest sides on your block) to line up your block on the mat.  This will help you to be more precise.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  

A tip:

Start with the sides that don't include the tiny square in the cut.  (Like the picture above.  Remember...my tiny square is always the pink one.)  Often times your first cut will be a bigger trim than the one on the opposite side.  This will keep you from trimming down that tiny square too much.  Remember...we still have to sew all of these into a quilt top, and you don't want that tiny square to disappear...that's not why it's called a Disappearing 9-Patch.  lol

Try to keep your eye on that little square.  You'll be glad you did.

Trim up all of your blocks to be 6 1/2" square.

And that's it for this week.  I promise...next week will be fun, and you will finally get to see how your quilt top will look.  :)  Remind yourself that the annoying and seemingly endless cutting will pay off in the end.  (Take it from someone (ME!) that didn't know you should square up a block before you make your top.  My seams were so crazy and uneven.  It was a mess.  And I always wished someone had mentioned it to me sooner.)

Sew long for now!

-Amanda-