Look what I found–62 little quilt seeds; they were just waiting to be planted into a quilt.

These nine patches are made from 2″ squares with the block finishing at 4 1/2″ square. These nine patches were made quite a few years ago as leader / enders. They have been sitting idle in this box ever since.

I picked up the latest Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine’s Quilt It~More Nine Patch Favorites and the cover quilt, Nine Patch Path seemed to be the perfect pattern to give these homeless nine patches a purpose. I only have 62 nine patch blocks in my box – not enough to make my version bed size. This is a perfect scrap / stash quilt pattern.

I will wait until I have used up my nine patches and then decide if the quilt will remain that size or if I will add an outer border to make it larger. I like an outer border not only to add size to a quilt, but because it also stabilizes the quilt for machine quilting and it gives a visual frame to the piece. The pattern in the magazine is borderless, so I will wait to make that decision.

These are the blocks that I have put together so far. Please disregard the distortion in the picture–it was taken while my blocks were hanging on my design wall (aka the floor).

Linda J: I think this project must be the perfect combination to address my outstanding UFO list and to “reward my brain” with creativity. This is technically a new project–I certainly did not have it in mind when I made these little nine patch blocks. However, these nine patches were also technically an ignored UFO. Eureka! A project that address the creative need while getting another box off the UFO shelf!

To Everyone Else: When you start a new project with UFOs still on the shelf, just remember Linda J’s quote, “I am not ignoring UFOs, just rewarding my brain!” This erases all UFO guilt! (quote used with permission of Linda J — which still makes me chuckle when I read it!)

My Double 4 Patch is to the flimsy stage. What a great start to a month of dieting–fabric purchase dieting, that is! This top was made completely from my stash.

This top finished 65″ x 90″. I learned a lot from the making of this quilt.

– Smaller quilts should be made from smaller pieces. The squares in this quilt finish at 2 1/2″ square. If the quilt was larger, this size square would likely have worked better.

– If I had stuck to darker squares across the diagonal of each block and had darker corner stones, the diagonal lines that appear as a secondary design across the quilt would have been more pronounced.

– A scrappy border made from large chunks of fabric does not work on a small quilt. Again, a quilt with that type of border needs to be larger in size (and not displayed where critical husbands can view it.)

Note: I finished this flimsy earlier today. However, I had to wait until my DS came home to hold the quilt top for me so that I could take the picture. He is 6 ft. 7 1/2 inches tall and is the best quilt hanger I have on staff here. He grumbles a lot but he does the job. As he was holding this one up tonight I could hear him say from behind the quilt, “I wish I was a midget–then I wouldn’t have to do this or hear you say, “hold it up just one more inch”. *VBS*