Nine Patches

06Sep
by Janine @ Rainbow Hare

A while ago (so long I can’t remember when exactly) I signed up with Kristen at Meadowbrook for a nine patch QAL. I put her button in my side bar and started dreaming in nine patches…

In my head I trialled virtually all my fabric in endless combinations but I never actually got round to sewing until last week. I’ve been trying to decide what to do with these red paisley prints for ages but they never seem to go with anything else so I decided to just put them with white because I happened to have enough of it. The squares are 5″ which I chose so I could get a reasonably sized quilt out of them.

It came together very quickly but the white areas are looking very big and very white. So I’ve been wondering whether to embellish it with applique or maybe dresdens…or whether to resist and go with a ‘less is more’ theme…What do you think?

nine patch top currently 67 1/2″ square

At the moment I’m thinking I’ll add a thin white border (to get it to 72″ square because I’ve got most of a queen sized piece of wadding), do some straight line quilting and use the little I have left of these fabrics, together with some solid red, for the binding. Then I’ll see whether it looks ok or needs something more to break up all the white…

Still on the ‘less is more’ theme, the other thing I’ve been thinking about over the Summer is low volume. I came across it back in June when Karen blogged about this lovely quilt she had made. I went to visit this flickr group and drooled over all the beautiful, restful quilts and I resolved to try sewing a bit more quietly. But I haven’t been doing very well! I somehow missed Rebecca Lynne’s Low Volume Swap until it was too late and, although I’ve been very quiet on the blogging front, my sewing seems to have gone to the other extreme. This is my block for Sana in the ‘Scrappy? Sew Be It!’ Bee. Sana said “I love bright colors“. I hope I haven’t taken her too literally…this is an indoor photo and the colours haven’t come out quite right but there’s no getting away from the fact that this is loud!

What have you been thinking about lately? Come over and share your musings at TNT.

I also  have two small finishes – Sana’s block and this little bag (blogged here) and the bag has a little hand stitching, although it’s not easy to see in the photo.

Janine @ Rainbow Hare

 

 

14 thoughts on “Nine Patches”

  1. LynCC

    I love your fabric! Very pretty in this. You could certainly go with a less-is-more approach, especially if you feel like doing some feature quilting in the white areas.

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  7. Nic

    I really like your red and white quilt. I'd keep the white areas as they are and instead use them for large quilting motifs. In white, the traditional way or in red thread if you want to easily see the motif.
    That's just me though. I look forward to seeing what you decide to do.

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  8. M-R

    Such fun, bright colours in that block and you know I love that white bag! I'm with the less is more on the quilting of the quilt top. Maybe some feather wreaths in the white areas?

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  12. Rebecca Lynne

    Janine! I've missed you… The red and white is stunning…very classic and yet the white has done all the work in this one. I am loving the bright block for Sana. It actually reminded me a bit of Life's Rich Pattern as I feel A is always using those bright bright colors. Maybe our next swap will be Blind Me Bright charm swap!

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