Saturday, 3 July 2021

Aunt Dinah - A nine patch

 




Nine Patch blocks based on a 3x3 grid are the most common families of blocks as our eyes are drawn to the focal point in the centre.

In the above block we have 

-a whole square in the centre.

-a hourglass subunit made from four quarter square triangles in each of the four sides; In the example above three of the triangles are the background fabric which gives one lone triangle as the point, this gives the illusion that the centre of the block is constructed as a square within a square, if you did it that way the edges and corners would be very complicated to construct!

-the corner squares are the most complex we have a smaller square (quarter size finished of the centre unit) which has half square triangles added to two sides to make a bigger half square triangle shape, we then add another bigger half square triangle to make the final square corner piece.  This subunit is sometimes called the "Cats Cradle"

Yep this one is not for a beginner but for when you have worked with half square triangles for a little while - however it does show that triangles (just like squares) can themselves be pieced which opens up even more ideas in the patchworking universe!

This Pinterest link shows a quilt layout with the block set onpoint for a completely different look.

For those who work better with a video to follow this one has a slightly different colour placement





 

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