I spent 2 hours this morning and another 2 1/2 hours this evening piecing. I managed to get 9 of the Nine Patch Path blocks pieced, sashed and joined together. I was going to stop at this point, but I like the pattern so well that I think I will add another three blocks to this piece and make it rectangular rather than square.

I also started piecing together the leftover sashing bits. I am not sure what size this will end up. It is fun to think that every last little bit is being put to good use.

This is the progress so far on the Nine Patch Path. I finished three more blocks tonight.

I spent two hours in my studio piecing tonight. I don’t usually keep track of the amount of time I spend piecing or quilting in a particular session. However, because Judy L. was asking how much time we spend quilting in a day, I thought I would pay attention. Of course the time went by very quickly and if I hadn’t paid attention to the time when I started, I would never have guessed that it was two hours that had gone by.

Here is my very happy and proud husband with his catch of the day — 2 very nice Sockeye Salmon!

Sockeye Season opened today. My DH headed to the river right after work tonight and had his limit by 7:30 pm. He headed home, cleaned them, and then loaded the canner. Home canned salmon is such a treat in the winter!

This is my favorite salmon so I am hoping that he does well this season.

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*