Hive 5 - September Tutorial - Double Disappearing 9 Patch for Erin

Double Disappearing 9 Patch for Erin

Hive 5 Tutorial for September 2024

The number of times I have gone back to Christina Cameli’s tutorial on

the double disappearing 9 patch (dd9p) block is embarrassing.

Her Blog ‘A Few Scraps’ is a wealth of great stuff and here is her tutorial

https://www.afewscraps.com/2014/07/double-disappearing-nine-patch-improved.html

her original tutorial really inspired my thoughts on color/background and layout ideas:

https://www.afewscraps.com/2011/08/double-disappearing-nine-patch.html

In 2020, another stashbee participant, Em from @moonlightsewing, did another dd9p tutorial withdifferent dimensions. Hers uses charm squares and ends in a 19.5” finished block

https://stashbee.blogspot.com/search?q=double+disappearing+

This is going to be following The first tutorial for a 10” finished block.

The basics of this block are sewing a nine-patch block from your small squares,

cutting that nine-patch into quarters, adding the large squares to create a new 9 patch.

Then you'll repeat the process of cutting, rotating blocks and sewing.

This makes sense when you see it, I promise.

NOTES:

For the stashbee, I’m going to have you stop after creating just the first disappearing 9 patch block.

From here, I’m going to cut them into quarters to create final blocks. I want to play with mixing and matching

parts of the blocks that you have created!

I’m going to post a whole tutorial so you can have it if you want to make some dd9p in the future for a project of yours!

Fabric Choices-

I love a bright rainbow of colors. Think as ‘Neon’ as you can possibly get- like those packs of highlighters or

‘astrobrights’ paper. If you have solids, great! If not, please try to have the fabric read as color-true as possible:

tone on tone, small prints, blenders. Bonus points if you have really cute little prints that have wild/weird things like starry, tula pink, ruby star or other modern designers.

Background: Low volume brighter whites, light greys 

Bright Colors: 

Cool Colors- turquoise blue, lime green, purple

Warm Colors- Pink, Magenta, Orange, yellow

Fabric Restrictions:

Please Do NOT use brown/cream, batiks, patriotic, large prints

Cutting list:

Small Squares 3”x3”

(4) Background/White

(4) Bright Colors for corners 

(1)Contrasting Bright Center Color - this will remain paired with your corner colors 

Large Squares 4”x4”

(1) Center Color - this will remain paired with your corner and first center colors 

(4) Background/White

BLOCK INSTRUCTIONS:

Make a nine-patch block

Your corners and middle should be your brightly-colored fabric, while the middle pieces will be your white/background fabric

Here's an example with prints and a light grey background instead of white. Please keep your background the same print/color.

Square up your fabric after cutting. 

Prepare to cut your nine-patch down the middle both ways

Spread the blocks out, keeping the original middle block at the center.

Place the new large squares for a new nine-patch. Your center square should be a color fabric, your middle squares should be background fabric. Sew into your new nine-patch

*****STASHBEE- STOP HERE - DON’T TRIM - Send as is!*****

You’re going to stop here and send me your disappearing nine-patch.

I am going to trim and quarter these to mix and match them up for the final product!

I can't wait to see the fun things that you send out!

Otherwise:

If you are following along to make your own dd9p:

Cut your new nine-patch down the middle in both directions,

rearrange opposing corner blocks by rotating 180 degrees, so your corner blocks now are in the center. Sew this together and you now have your dd9p!

There are lots of other fun variations you can do with this by just rearranging your small blocks before the final sew

Hive 4: February Tutorial - Double Disappearing 9-patch

Hi Stash Bee!

My name is Em and I have participated in Stash Bee all except one year, I think. Five times? Anyway, I always enjoy this bee and I LOVE that there is now an Instagram hive because that's my main mode of social media interaction. You can find me @moonlightsewing. 

Since I'm part of the IG hive, I prepped this tutorial so that I could make it available on Instagram as well. 

This is the classic "double disappearing nine patch" block and I made it so that the starting pieces are 5-inch charm squares.

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS

(5) 5 inch squares in blue/turquoise/navy
(4) 5 inch squares in yellow/lime/green
(1) 7 inch square in yellow/lime/green
(4) 7 inch squares in low volume, low contrast prints

BLOCK CONSTRUCTION

Step 1: Create a nine-patch block with the 5-inch squares. The blue/turquoise/navy squares will be the center and four corners. The yellow/lime/green squares will be the middle edges. 

Step 2: Cut the 9-patch in both directions down the center (7 inches from each side) to make four quarters. 

STASH BEE STOP HERE. Go ahead and send me the 4 quarters and I will finish the blocks when I receive them. This is a 19-inch block when finished (19.5 inches, unfinished) and thus is larger than the 16-inch maximum block size for this bee.

I will continue the tutorial for anyone who comes across this post and wishes to make a double disappearing nine patch using charm squares.

Step 3: Slide the 7-inch quarters out to become the corners of a second nine patch. Place your 7-inch yellow/lime/green square in the center and the (4) 7-inch low volume squares in the middle edge positions.

Step 4: Sew the nine patch together, then cut in both directions down the center (10 inches from each side) to make four quarters. 

Step 5: Rearrange the four quarters so that the center is at the outside corner for 2 diagonal quarters. Sew the block back together. 

Finished!!

Hive 9 June Block Tutorial

Hi, Jacki here – in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. My husband of 30+ years and I just moved down here from Northern Virginia. I’m still a little ‘grumpy cat’ about the move, but as soon as I’ve got my studio set the way I want, and my yard under control this will be a great place to live. I’ve already found the local fabric shops, and there are some great ones.  When everything seemed to be falling to pieces I'd run to a quilt shop. Just touching the fabrics helped restore balance. (lol) If you downloaded the address list at the beginning of the year please double check the address you have for me. I updated my info in February, so the Google doc is currently correct, but if you saved it to your computer before then your copy might be out of date.

      This month I’d like you to make a black and white block with a twist, using one black-on-white fabric and one white-on-black fabric. If you have them I would prefer geometrics and other fabrics that read modern rather than florals. Here are a handful I pulled from my stash. If you don’t have any, let me know and I’ll send some right out to you.

        The block I’ve picked is one of Jenny Doan’s Disappearing Pinwheel series with a simple size change to make your measuring easier. I’d like you to use 10½ inch squares. The block we are making is the Disappearing Pinwheel 3, a friendship star with an Illinois roads as the secondary block.  The fabrics should give a modern spin to this traditional block, and I have an avian inspired setting in mind for the finished piece.

You can check out Jenny’s tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrOasfMpyXo - then come back and we’ll walk through the steps using real numbers.

Caution: Near the end of the tutorial the quilt hanging behind Jenny changes to a different block.  

Step 1

Cut two  10 ½ inch squares. Place them right sides together, and sew around all four sides using a scant ¼ inch seam.

Step 2

Cut the sewn fabric diagonally in both directions. Iron the pieces open (press to the dark, or with open seams), arrange in a pinwheel and sew the pieces together.

• Jenny zips through the rest of the steps without mentioning that from here on out every edge is a bias edge. Just go slowly, use your sizing liberally and don’t pull the fabric too much. It all works beautifully if you are gentle. <Insert Zen gong here?>

 For my purposes when you arrange your pinwheel it does not matter which direction the blades are spinning.

Step 3

Your assembled pinwheel block is a little larger than 13 ½ inches. Square it off to exactly 13 ½ inches. Please do not skip this step, it makes all the difference in next step.

Step 4

Now we cut the squared pinwheel into a nine-patch. Each piece will be a 4 ½ inch square.

Because you’ve squared the block you can measure in from each side. Or, if you are unsure about the square-ness of your block, make your cuts 2¼ inches in each direction from the center line (math mavens instantly saw how that measurement worked, the rest of us just take it on faith, lol)

• In her tutorial Jenny makes two cuts, rotates the fabric and slashes away boldly producing perfect squares. Being more timid, I first cut the pinwheel into 3 strips (4 ½ by 13 ½) and then worked with each strip separately to cut the 4 ½ inch squares.

Step 5

Now comes the fun part.

The friendship star may be black or white. The flat (vertical?) side of the top point may be on the left or the right.

Keeping the center piece in the center, follow the pictures and/or check back with Jenny (at 6:10) and rearrange the outer pieces to make your friendship star.

Arrange the star first, then add the corner blocks. Notice how the corner blocks create a frame around the star. Also, the corner block next to the flat side of the point is parallel to that flat side.

Now, for this month’s question.

This month the question is less about sharing facts and more about expressing personality. Look at my concept below. The working name for the quilt is Friendship in Flight. My question is this: are the blocks landing, taking off, or just milling about? Tell us why, feeling free to be analytical, or Zen in your answer. Oh, and don’t take the question too seriously, we’re not analyzing anyone.  I’ll add my answer at the end of the month to avoid undue influence. LOL. I hope you have fun with this block. JackiB