How often has this happened to you? I was cleaning a closet and found a shoebox of leftover nine patch blocks in the back. Oh, I remember them! First is a stack of ten radiant nine patches in blue. The pattern was published by Blanche Young. Catherine and I made a queen-size quilt for an auction and these were my leftovers... twenty years ago. Although we had lots of fun I wanted to wait a bit before beginning another. It's probably been long enough, don't you agree?
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| Radiant Nine-Patch quilt |
Because it's a value study the x's and o's should be very low contrast as you move from light to dark. We used an analogous color scheme I want to try again although greyed colors were the style back then. I chose mostly blue-green, blue & blue-violet from my stash. To emphasize the value changes rather than the fabrics, the blocks finish 4.5 inches which means each small square was cut two inches.
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| Example of a Radiant Nine-Patch block |
The innermost border is 1.5 inches of a lovely pink print while the next border is a half inch of blue and green stripe. The outer border is larger four-patch squares which shade from medium to darker values in the corners.
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| Detail of the border of a Radiant Nine-Patch quilt |
This time I used metallic and rayon threads to add some shine. Since it looked aquatic, I quilted ammonites (I have to get some geology in here) and starfish with lots of waves and swirls.
It's still a lovely pattern, perfect for beginners too.
Fret not; enjoy the day.
Ann
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