New Orleans House Project

Saturday, September 12, 2015

RSC 15: Never Tired of Nine Patches

It was great to celebrate Labor Day with a 3-day weekend, but the following 4 workdays seemed even longer and more stressful than usual!  I was more than happy when Friday afternoon rolled around, even if it was stormy & rainy.  We are anticipating the first wave of cooler weather here in the Gulf South, and the weather forecasters are saying temps will be in the 50s tomorrow morning here at the camp.  Porch-sitting weather, for sure!

Despite my orange block prep of the previous week, only 9 patch blocks were finished this week.  Even though they are simple and humble, I never get tired of 9 patch blocks.  In fact, I have an entire Evernote notebook devoted to 9 patch quilt variations.  I already have 2 or 3 new 9 patch quilts designed in my head! 

Even though I mentioned working on my Happy, Scrappy House blocks during September, I knew I needed to add a finishing touch to these Scrap Jar Stars first.  When I finished the initial block and border assembly on the quilt top, I thought it was too small.  I wanted to add a border to increase the quilt's size, but I didn't have enough of the multi-color dotted background fabric to create a larger border.  I experimented with quite a few different fabrics, but nothing looked right.  After some consideration, I decided the quilt would never be used on a bed, so the smaller size wasn't as important as I was making it out to be.  I had just enough of the dotted fabric to make a final, narrow border that completed the 9 patch block secondary effect.  The final size is about 59" x 72".

We are having friends over for dinner tonight, but thankfully the menfolks will be doing most of the cooking.  I just need to clean the house and set the table.  I will be enjoying my sewing vicariously today via the Rainbow Scrap link-up!