Nine Patch Square

Nine patch quilt blocks are probably the most commonly used blocks in quilts -- three patches across and three patches down. The indivudual patches may contain several pieces, but you put those pieces together into a patch and make nine of these units. Sounds simple enough -- and it is!

Nine Patch Square quilt block

Today's featured block is called the Nine Patch Square. It contains only small squares, rectangles and flying geese units. This quilt block is a good choice for beginner quilters as the shapes are simple. However, you can create all sort of interesting quilts just by the colours you choose and how you lay the blocks out into the quilt. Who says a quilt design must be challenging to be interesting?

You might also like to check out a companion block, the Nine Patch Square - Variation. See if you can spot the subtle difference between the two blocks.

Inspiration for today -- (Quilting is an Art form)

• "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time."
  ~ Thomas Merton


• "Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art."
  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

_{'Nine Patch Square' quilt block image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com}

Two new quilt block patterns today

Union Square quilt block

I'm pretty happy today with my latest achievement -- moving my website to a new location and getting it online once again. So, why not some quotes about achievements?

• "Every great achievement is the victory of a flaming heart."
  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


• "When one must, one can."
  ~ Charlotte Whitton

Now down to business ...

Today's first featured block is a variation of the Ohio Star quilt block (an old favourite of quilters), called Union Square. I chose colours for this block with little girls in mind, but it would look amazing in any number of colour combinations.

• Download the free quilt block pattern for Union Square.

The next quilt block was new to me -- called Z Cross. (I was wanting to create a block starting with "Z" to fill out my alphabetical list of blocks.)

At first glance, this appeared to me to be a really "ho hum" block, but when I designed some quilts using this block, I was very pleasantly surprised. You can see below what I came up with, but I did not want to show a picture of the actual block,  because you would likely never be interested. Click on the image or the text link to see the block for yourself.

• Download the free quilt block pattern for Z Cross.

Z Cross sample quilts

_{images © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com}

Eureka! It's back on the web!

Well, I learned a valuable lesson throughout all this.

The back story is that, believe it or not, I am the one in the family who is considered to be the "techy" member. So, I thought I knew what to do to transfer my website to a different host provider. (Now in my defense, I listened to the tech people at the new hosting company and they told me what to do. They just neglected to tell me some of the finer details.)

Well, after a wave of panic, I contacted my tech guy and he fixed it all up for me. There were several little extra tasks that I was to do and was unaware of, due to the nature of how my particular website works. Anyway, in a few strokes of the keyboard and a little upload/download time on his end ... the Patchwork Square website is live once again. (The man is a genius!)

The lesson learned is an oldie ... "Kids, don't try this at home!"

Tomorrow I will be adding the two new quilt block patterns that I created while waiting for all this to magically be fixed.Whew!

_{image courtesy clipartpanda.com}

Website Woes

Hello Everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that if you are finding that Patchwork Square is currently unavailable, it is due to the fact that I am moving the website to a new host provider and it is taking longer than I thought it would. They have "escalated" the process and hopefully, it will be up and running in a short while.

So sorry for the inconvenience and I hope you will check back again soon.

Wendy

It's Canada Day!

Maple Leaf quilt block

As you probably already know, the symbol noted for Canada is the Maple Leaf. So, even though I am late in the day to post this, I just had to use my latest Maple Leaf quilt block pattern to share with you and to celebrate the day. (The extra red, outer triangles here are added just for effect -- my version today of the Canadian flag).

 Simple rotations of the blocks can give you all sorts of interesting quilts. I have shown a couple of ideas below to give you some inspiration.

Another Maple Leaf quilt block pattern to download.

Proud to be Canadian

• "I am grateful for the opportunities I have been given to participate in that work as a representative of my country, Canada, whose people have, I think, shown their devotion to peace."
  ~ Lester B. Pearson


• "I love being Canadian. I think growing up in Canada gives you a world perspective that I certainly enjoy."
  ~ Ryan Gosling





Maple Leaf quilts

• "I love Canadians because I don't see very much racism in Canada."
  ~ Patti LaBelle


• "When God created the world, he didn't draw a line between Canada and America."
  ~ Marianne Williamson


• "Canada has great natural resources, and its people have the spirit and ability to develop them."
  ~ Charles E. Wilson


• "It's like Canada is the little brother to the United States and one day they are going to show the world they're just as cool as their successful big brother."
  ~ Dustin Milligan

_{'Maple Leaf' quilt images © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com}

Vanna ... spin me a letter.

Wheel of Fortune quilt block

The Wheel of Fortune is a nine patch quilt block, and is an easy one to construct. It uses one of my favourite patches -- the three-quarter square triangle. This patch is not used as frequently as many others, but I like it because it gives the quilter a chance to utilize both the common half square triangle and the quarter square triangle patches. See if you can pick out which triangle is which.

I guess you realize that I just couldn't resist these quotes due to the title of this quilt block.

From those famous "Wheel of Fortune" word wizards

• "If I went in to pitch this show to a network, I would be laughed out of the room."
  ~ Pat Sajak


• "Sometimes you just stumble into something that works, and here I am a quarter of a century later."
  ~ Pat Sajak


• "Anyone who has seen me spin that heavy, giant wheel on television knows that I'm not a steroid user."
  ~ Pat Sajak


• "I enjoy getting dressed as a Barbie doll.
  ~ Vanna White"


• "When I was having that alphabet soup, I never thought that it would pay off.
  ~ Vanna White"


• "It's not the most intellectual job in the world, but I do have to know the letters.
  ~ Vanna White"

_{'Wheel of Fortune' quilt block image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com
'Wheel of Fortune' image courtesy http://www.wheeloffortune.com/}

Bring on the marshmallows ...

Forest Campfire quilt block

The Forest Campfire quilt block has lots of possibilities with the layout of the quilts. Setting the blocks side by side produces a secondary pattern which seems to give you "more bang for your buck", so to speak.

Flying geese patches and three quarter square triangles make the block, so this is a time to test out those shapes, if they are new to you.

 

Camping Fun

• "Camping is nature's way of promoting the motel business."
  ~ Dave Barry


• "We're not much of a camping family. When I was in Cub Scouts, we went camping once, and my dad snored the whole time and kept me up. It wasn't that fun."
  ~ Chandler Riggs


• "If you're not in New York, you're camping out."
  ~ Thomas Dewey

_{'Forest Campfire' image © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com
Campfire Image courtesy of franky242 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net}

A rose by any other name ...

English Rose quilt block

I seem to be on a "pink" kick, but isn't pink a favourite colour for the roses you receive?

The English Rose quilt block is comprised of simple patches -- the square and the half square triangle, so there is nothing difficult in the sewing of the block. The fun begins when you start to play around with the layout of the blocks, to see what secondary pattern can emerge as a result.

These two quilt illustrations show you just some of the ways to set your blocks to get secondary effects.

English Rose quilts

You might also be interested in other "royal" quilt blocks as well, such as ...

~ Princess Charlotte

~ Queen Charlotte's Crown

~ Coronation

~ More Flower Quilt Blocks

Thank you Mr. Shakespeare

"What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet; ...."
~ [Act II, Scene II - Romeo and Juliet]


_{'English Rose' images © W. Russell, patchworksquare.com}