Quarter of Nine #12

What You Should Know About

Quarter Of Nine Blocks

* They are easy to make.
* They are fun to design (play) with.
* They start out as traditional blocks.

To make a Quarter of Nine block you first make any traditional block that is designed on a ninepatch grid. Nine Patch is one, but so is Shoo Fly, and Churn Dash, and Friendship Star.

If you look around you'll find there are a lot more than these. The block library for EQ6 shows 57 ninepatch blocks. But keep looking because there are more than that.

Once you've made a ninepatch block, you cut it into quarters.

Each quarter is what I call a Quarter of Nine block.

Now comes the fun part. You get to sew the Quarter of Nine blocks back together any way you choose.

You find you can make all sorts of new blocks. Don't be afraid to try every possible combination you can think of. Some of the results may seem a bit bizzare. But that's okay. Sometimes even the most bizarre blocks go together to make attractive quilts.

Because you make a Quarter of Nine block by cutting a ninepatch block into quarters, when you sew the quarters back together you will loose some fabric in the new seams

This can help make your new blocks even more interesting. For example, if you sew a Friendship Star back together exactly as it was you get this:

Once you've had fun playing and designing a new block using a Quarter of Nine block, you then get to play some more and design a quilt using your new block.

To see some of my quilts designed using quarter of nine blocks go to My Posts by Subject in the column on the right and scroll down until you get to Quarter of Nine, then click.