Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. And I’ve got a great project for you today.
Let’s take a look at this quilt behind me. Isn’t this fun? I love the black, white
and red fabric, a very classic look. And this is traditional nine patch and hourglass blocks.
And I have a new way for you to make those. So that’s going to be fun. So to make this
quilt what you’re going to need is 25 ten inch squares. And we have used Cherry Twist
by Canvas Studios for Benertex. You’re also going to need some background squares, some
plain white ones for this quilt. You’re going to need 22 of those. And, and so you
can use them from a pack of ten inch squares or you can use yardage. If you’re going
to use yardage it is a yard and ¾ and you’re just going to cut ten inch squares out of
that. You’re also going to need a half a yard for this inner border right here. And
for this outer border out here you’re going to need a yard and a ¼ and that’s a nice
six inch border out there. And our backing, let’s take a look at that before we get
too far. Ah look at that pretty print on the back of the quilt. Isn’t that fun? So for
the backing you’re going to need 4 ½ yards and that’s with vertical seams. So let me
show you how to make this because this is fun.
So normally when we make a nine patch and an hourglass, you have to have two different
cuts of fabric. Well we’re going to do it all from a ten inch square. So let me show
you how to do that. You’re going to line them up right on top of each other, a print
one with a solid one. And we’ll just cut them at the same time. You’re going to cut
a 2 ½ inch strip off both sides right here. So here’s our 2 ½ right here. We’re going
to cut this and we’re going to set this up here. And then we’re going to turn this
and cut it off the side. Alright, just like that. Now we’re going to take these two
strips right here and we’re going to cut those into 2 ½ inch squares and those are
going to be the squares for our nine patch blocks. So let me cut here 2 ½ . And I’m
just now going to lay this one on top of here like this. And I’m going to cut them at
the same time. 2 ½, 2 ½, get as many as you can out of each little strip that you
cut off. Make sure this is lined up here nice and straight. I better move those out. There
we go. And then this last little one right there. All of a sudden when I was looking
at it, it looked like wait a minute, this could get a little wonky. Nope that’s good
shape. I’ll just trim off those little peaks there. So you’re going to set these aside
for you nine patch blocks because you’re going to want to mix those all up.
So these are going to make all our nine patch blocks right here. And you’re going to want
to wait and cut them all out because you’re going to want to mix them up. Now from the
square that’s left it should be a 7 ½ inch square. And we are going to make our hourglass
blocks out of that and so we’re going to draw a line side to side on this and sew on
either side. So let me draw my line here. And you can iron this as well if you would
rather. Iron a line I mean. And so now what we’re going to do is we’re going to sew
a quarter of an inch on either side. And I’m going to look to make sure. Nope, look at
that. I forgot to put them right sides together . So let’s put them right sides together
and then we’re going to sew on either side of this line. And that’s going to give us
two half square triangles. Alright here we go. So we’re just going to sew down one
side and up the other. Make sure my thread doesn’t get caught there. Line your presser
foot up with the edge of the line and sew right down it. Alright now we’re going to
cut these in half just like this and press these open. So I”m just going to set my
seam right here. And I don’t know if you guys saw that but I used a frixon pen to mark
the line. And so when I ironed that it just disappeared. That’s what’s really fun
about these pens is that it won’t matter because it’s in the seam. But you know I
just get tickled every time I iron it. It’s like whoosh, there it goes, there it goes.
Alright so now what we’re going to do is we are going to draw a line on the back of
one of these half square triangles again because we’re making hourglasses which means we’re
going to put them together. And we want to swap these out. We don’t want to use the
same square. So I have some other squares over here that are done. And because you want
your hourglasses to be different. So I”m going to match this up. Let me see here. Maybe
these back here. Let’s see if I have enough contrast. Maybe this one. Oh they’re kind
of bright. That will work. So what we’re going to do now is we’re going to lay our
half square triangles so the colors go in opposite direction. And this middle seam is
going to nest up. And you can feel right here that there’s no room in between. Your squares
should line up and we’re going to sew again a quarter of an inch on either side of that
line. Alright, here we go. If you feel a little unsure about that middle juncture and you
want to put a pin in there just feel free to do that. Alright now we’re going to cut
this one again. And this is going to give us our hourglass block. There we go. So let’s
see, here we go. Look at that. So isn’t that fun? So we’re going to press these
open, actually no we’re not because I’m using a new ruler to square them and you don’t
have to press open to do that. So I’m using the Clearly Perfect seam trimmer. And I want
to square these half square triangles, these hourglass blocks, actually I want to square
them to 6 ½. So you’re going to lay your stitch line on the stitch line of this. And
then this line right here also goes on the stitch line. So it’s able to keep that center
of your hourglass perfectly centered. And so again stitch line on the stitch line and
this line on our seam line going up. We’re going to trim these little corners right here
and come up the sides like this and down the other side. And that makes it so easy to trim
them up and it should be just perfect now and perfectly centered as well. And it is.
Alright so let’s go one more. Again I’m lining my stitch line, my stitch line on their
stitch line and making sure that this middle line is also connected on the stitch line.
Just like this. My seam seems to be leaning a little bit to one side. So I hope that works
out alright. And we’re coming down both sides. And this should be perfect. And it
is. Alright. So let’s press these. I have a whole bunch of stuff here. Lots of stuff.
Let me get these out of the way so you can see. Alright.
So now we’re going to make these a stack of these and set them aside. And we need to
work on our nine patch blocks. The nine patch block assembly is going to be super easy for
us because they’re already cut in 2 ½ inch squares. And we just want to make sure that
we line them out so they’re right. Which means our center square is going to have,
nope sorry, these are the outside ones. Our center square is going to have the color in
the middle. There we go, like that. And then this outer edge over here we’re going to
have a white in the center and two colors on either side. And we’re just going to
lay those on there, look at it. Because you’re dealing with 2 ½ inch squares every block
you’re custom making so it’s, you get to decide where all the blocks go. So let’s
sew this row together and then we can connect it to those. They’re all made the same way.
Just a quarter of an inch sewing your squares together. And when I make a lot of blocks
like this out of squares what I like to do is I sew them in twos. So I’ll sew a print
and a background, a print and a background. And I’ll chain piece them all. And then
I’ll go back through and I’ll add the color to two sides and a white to the other
side. And if I’ve completely confused you I’m sorry. I’ll show you what I mean.
Alright so I have my, here let me press this down. And I”m actually going to press this
one to the dark side. And when you press to the dark side, when you’re dealing with
white fabric that means that you want your seams back here to come on the dark side because
if they come over into the middle on the white then those seams are going to show. So the
middle one are pressed in which means they’re going to nest very nicely. So when I’m talking
about chain sewing them through I’m going to a print and a white like this and I’m
going to sew a whole bunch of those. Then to two of them I’m going to add the color
to the other side. And to the other two, the other one, the middle one I’m going to add
a white to the other one side. I hope that makes sense. Because you need three of these
to make your nine patch. So let’s sew these together. And I’m just going to bring my
middle center over here and I’m going to line up my top edge, take a few stitches,
make sure it’s lined up. And then I’m going to lift up my, my row and make sure
that those are nested well. And then I’m just going to sew down to that seam, stop,
make sure the next seam is nested well, sew down to that and then continue on to the bottom.
And then we’re going to do the other side as well, doing exactly the same thing. Sew
a couple of stitches up here and then make sure that’s. Alright now we’ll press these
open. Alrighty.
So then you have your nine patch blocks over here and you have your hourglass blocks and
let’s look at the quilt to see how they go together. So on the quilt here you can
see our hourglass blocks this first row they’re laying sideways and it goes hourglass, nine
patch, hourglass, nine patch, hourglass, nine patch, hourglass, nine patch. Now the next
row down you’re going to stagger them and you’re also going to flip your hourglass
block because we want this to square up. We want this to make that pattern. So let’s
look at how we’re going to do that. Just clean this off a little bit. Alright so we’re
going to start with our hourglass up and down, nope sideways, there we go. And we’re going
to do, we’re just going to do some short rows so you can see how this is going to go.
So sideways, sideways and like this. Our next row we’re going to start with our, our nine
patch and then we’re going to have our hourglass but it’s going to go up and down. So see
how that starts to form the square on there. So again a nine patch. Our nine patches, you
can turn those any way you want, they’re going to be the same just like that. And then
we’re going to come down here. Our next row. And it’s going to be sideways again
because half of the nine patch is surrounded by a white and half of them are surrounded
by color. So just watch which way, you know, watch which way you’re putting your hourglasses
in there because that’s going to matter because we want to form, these are the squares.
We want to form a white square and we want to form a colored square.
And so it’s just a great way of making a nine patch and an hourglass out of one single,
trying to get it here, out of one ten inch square. So we hope you enjoyed this tutorial
on the 9 Patch Hourglass block from the MSQC.