Monday, December 07, 2009

Disappearing 9 Patch Table Runner Tutorial.

This is such an easy runner to make. I'll do a tutorial here to show you just how easy lemon squeezy it is! I made this one with 27 charm squares, these ones are 5 inch squares. So lay them out into 3 groups to form a 9 patch block. Keep in mind that the squares in the corner of a 9 patch block will not be cut, so make sure that is a print you really like. The square in the middle of each 9 patch will be sliced twice, so keep that in mind too, busy prints or a neutral work best for the center square.

So once you are happy with the placement, sew them into 9 patch blocks. Hopefully they will stay in order! I always seem to get one row mixed up along the way.

And this is the fun part! After ironing your 9 patch block, slice it in half, rotate it and slice it again. So your block now becomes 4 blocks.

After you have cut all 3 of the original 9 patch blocks together, you now need to arrange the 12 new blocks in a pleasing manner. For this one I regrouped 4 little blocks to make one big block again, so I had 3 large blocks to make the runner. I tried to have 2 little squares in the center of each block facing the same way for each of the 3 larger blocks. Does that make sense? But you could really arrange the blocks anyway you wished. That's the joy of a Disappearing 9 Patch block, it doesn't really matter!

So once you have sewn all those blocks together you are on the home stretch! To make this runner just a little bit bigger and to frame it, I added a border of 1.5 inches as above.

Quilt as desired. I just did a meandering stipple all over the D9P blocks and an echo stitch just inside the border. Binding is on and pinned in place ready to hand sew down for this one.

See? Easy! Let me know if you make one, love to see.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Ahhh, that brings back memories of our D9P swap a couple of years ago! Such fun!

Meredith said...

Well, you know I won't be making one. But the blue is beautiful. Which lucky teacher is getting that one?

AJ said...

Love this fabric Helen!! I have lots of it myself...no sure what to do with it yet!

Cass said...

You might have inspired me to have a go now

Corrie said...

gorgeous! ok I can do that, once my market is over I'm making one! thanks for sharing, that is just the kind of tutorial I need with lots of piccies!

corrie:)

Shari said...

This is a great! You're a legend...

Mom said...

dont you just love that Alfresco line?! I do-

CitricSugar said...

Thank you for this tutorial! I would've stared at that quilt, figured out the small individual blocks and done it the hard way. Nine-patch makes so much more sense....

Anne D said...

Great table runner and tutorial. I love iot when bloggers show how they made something.
I made a similar one using 3 blocks. Here is a link if you would like to see it.http://batiksbythebay.blogspot.com/2009/10/disappearing-9-patch.html

Anne D said...

Sorry the link didn't work. I blogged about the runner in October.

blueberrymoon said...

Thank You!! I am wanting to make one now!!

Eloise said...

Thanks for this tutorial, I've just used it to make my first quilt!

vettaluminosa said...

magnifica idea!I love "random look"