Try This Magic Trick for Identical Nine-Patch Blocks
It’s a Great Time and Fabric Saver!
Do you ever find yourself having to make several identical nine-patch blocks? You can piece squares into nine patches but that’s a time-consuming prospect.
An easier way is to make strip sets. However, you’ll need to make two sets of strips to produce the blocks. That tends to be most economical when the blocks can alternate the color of the outside squares as in the example below.
Typical of Nine Patch blocks made from strip sets. Photo from Generations Quilt Patterns.
Carol Hopkins has developed another way to use strip sets – and all the blocks will be the same. Watch her demonstrate the process in the following video.
Click here to watch the video at YouTube if it doesn’t play on your device.
She is working with 1 1/2″ strips to produce 3″ finished nine patches. However, the technique works with most block sizes.
While all of the nine patches are different in the following quilt, it’s so pretty that we couldn’t resist showing it to you. The pattern is available in Carol’s book Civil War Legacies II: 17 Small Quilt Patterns for Reproduction Fabrics. You can get a copy here.
