Into the Mail

As part of the Interfaith Quilting Bee a special block is suggested each year for the groups to concentrate on making. Last year it was a rail fence variation. It was a good choice as a simple block but it did require some precision sewing to get it all to line up correctly. This year, a member of the KAQG taught something called a Crazy Nine Patch. It does require that you keep organized while you are sewing it but it has the added advantage that when you finish sewing it you square up the blocks to the largest size you can get your blocks to all match. For instance, if you start with twelve inch squares and, after slicing and piecing, you could get a ten and a half inch block out of each of them, them your blocks wil be ten and a half inches. If you really ended up with raggedty edges you might end up with nine inch blocks. Good for those of us that are not as precise as we should be. The original block block appears to have been taught at a Bernina workshop. A great tutorial on how to do this block is here.

I decided that I would use this block for my Doll Quilt Swap IV submission. Here is what I came up with:

I started with some of those five inch charm squares that are sold in quilt stores. I love working with this size but I thought it would be tricky for this block. It was a little tricky. In the end I ended up with twelve, three and a half inch unfunished blocks which ended up in a twelve by fifteen inch quilt. One thing I would do over is to follow the instructions. I went my own way and the last cut turned out to be a little tricky. Also, you can press your seams to one side as instructed in the Allsorts tutorial or you can press them open. Open means you will have fewer layers to struggle through with your rotary cutter.

BTW - I can't tell you where this quilt is going but its a very long way. I hope it makes it in time!