It's a Finish! Zig Zag Nine Patch

 Zig Zag Nine Patch

92 x 92

Actually I think it is one inch shorter on top width and one inch shorter on the left side. I measured all four sides several times and got different measurements each time so am just using the largest number and calling it good.  I have to confess I don't square up my quilts. I don't have the space or the tools and they serve my purpose whether they measure the same on top and bottom and on each side.  You can tell if a quilt has perfect measurements when a quilt is on a bed or on a person. 

 I like to find pictures of vintage quilts and try to figure out how to make them. 

I saw this one from the Darwin D. Bearly collection of Antique Ohio Amish Quilts at Plaid Portico and knew I had to make one. 

 I had a lot of three inch nine patches on hand. Some were from swaps over the years and others I just made when I felt the urge.   I also had the solids on hand so it was meant to be. 

I hand quilted it in different colors of perle #8. The quilting really shows up well on the solid red backing. I took some pics of the backing but they turned out pretty blurry and I don't feel like retaking any so you will just have to use your imagination. Even though I haven't washed it yet the hand quilting has made it all soft and crinkly already. 

This was my goal #1 

for 

Q3 Finish-Along

It's a Flimsy! Zig Zag Nine Patch

Zig Zag Nine Patch

94 x 94

It's a flimsy! 

 It started with a bin of 3 inch nine patches and a Google search of vintage quilts.  I landed on a picture of an antique Ohio Amish quilt from the Darwin D. Bearley collection and decided I would try to make one like it. 

And now back to searching...I have a lot of nine patches left.  

Zig Zag Nine Patch Progress

I'm often inspired by vintage quilts. In December I posted about one that  I had seen online and that I had decided to make one like it.  This is my progress so far - about half way to a big quilt top. 

It is 94 inches long and consists of alternating columns of 21 and 22 three inch nine patches.  Four columns = 17 inches across.  I'm trying to keep the corner patches of the nine patches the same color in each column  but I think I'll have a few columns of a mixed variety. I'm using three inch nine patches from my boxes of nine patches that have been swapped over the years. 

A few people wondered how I was making it so what follows is an explanation of how I made the column above  with the black cornered nine patches between a red zig and a blue zag. 

First I made sure I had 21 three inch nine patches with black corners. 

Then I cut a 3.5 inch strip of red and a 3.5 inch strip of blue and then further cut them into half HST pieces.  

Then I chain sewed all the red half HSTs to the left side of the nine patches oriented as shown. 

Then I chain pieced the blue half HST to the right side of the nine patch oriented as shown. 

 My units looked like this and I ironed them pressing seams toward the HST. 

 At this point I will show you how the top and bottom of the columns look.  When I'm finished with the quilt I'll trim it 1/4 inch from the point of the green and blue nine patches slicing through the other nine patches 1/4 inch from the center. That will leave some partial nine patches.  Hope I'm explaining this correctly. 

I guess you could trim as you go along but that's just not what I'm doing right now. 

Now back to our black nine patch column. Our column top and bottom nine patches will look like the green column so they need an extra half HST added to the top nine patch of the column and a blue half HST added to the bottom nine patch like above.  

Sew the pieces together as shown above until...

...you have an entire column made. 

Then sew your new column to the previous column.  (Yes, I'll trim the dog ears once the column as sewn together. It's faster for me to do it that way than individually it seems.)

And there you have it.  I actually clip the seam here and there so when I iron it everything will lie flat. 

I'm thinking I'll make about 20 columns. 

Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag