Quilt Shot Block #76 ~ Nine Patch (2 colors)

Nine Patch (2 colors)

6½ inch
If I had to choose a quilt icon, this has to be 1 of 2 I would choose.
It definitely represents quilting to me
 as it was the first quilt block I every made
many years ago.
Even my Grand Mother had my Dad to put some 9 patches together when he was a boy.
He said it was his Mom's way to keep them out of trouble when locked up in the house in the winter.

*******************

           This is a memory quilt made from clothing.
  I already had the clothing cut apart,
 but had to sew pieces together to make the strips
. So you will see seams within the block
 that don't normally appear in this block. 

           The blue is from lightweight denim vest & top.
The white is from a t-shirt which I had to line with lightweight iron-on interfacing.

This is not a new idea for putting a 9 patch together.

Way back when I was about 8 years old,

 I was using a pencil tracing around a square of cereal box cardboard

and then cutting with scissors to make a 9 patch.

Wow!

 How the world of quilting has changed.

Hand stitching the pieces together took a long time,

but even the cutting took a long time.

My cutting was never accurate no matter how hard I tried. 

Thus, I have SO much respect for the ladies that made those intricate quilts of years ago.

To make 10 of these 9 patches,

I cut 2½ inch strips that were around 38 inches long.

Even since the invention of cutting rulers,

more rulers have been invented.

And even rotary cutters.

This one works well in my arthritic hand.

As a former elementary teacher,

as I worked with this ruler,

I thought what a great way to teach kids how to skip count.

I had to mark mine with a dry erase marker
 to confirm my cutting spots every 2½ inches.

Ironed all seams to one direction.

I didn't worry if a strip didn't have seams that laid opposite.

I just turned it around.

I had to use my teflon foot,

 because it glided easier over the lightweight iron-on interfacing

 I used to line the t-shirt material.

I really didn't worry about making actual 3x3 blocks.

That's the good thing about using only 2 colors.

When doing an assembly line,

I just made sure I was matching up opposite colors.

 It took about an hour and half

 from cutting strips

to finishing the row of 10 blocks.

Ready to add this row to the memory quilt.
 See a possible quilt of this block below.

*************************************************************

 Sharing at several Linky Parties including:

http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/blog/
http://www.funkypolkadotgiraffe.net/
http://quiltstory.blogspot.com/ 
 http://podunkpretties.blogspot.com
http://www.blossomheartquilts.com

Adding a new linky this week:

********************************
Thanks to the FREE program

 Photoscape for downsizing & watermarking photo & other alterations to pictures.

and making the quilt sample pictures with the COMBINE tool.

 When you combine two color 9 patches together,

 secondary designs appear.