Hello, everyone! Things are heating up at my house, at least in the sense that I’m settling into retirement, and I’m rather enjoying being able to do things when I want to do them. I’ve been shopping with my daughter (hint: Christmas shopping is a lot easier on weekdays than it is on weekends, I’ve found), did some cleaning around the house, enjoyed some down time with my pups, and pretty much anything I’ve wanted to do. It. Is. Glorious.

I spent last Wednesday in the studio working on my Spare Squares quilt from Lori Holt’s book Scrappiness is Happiness. I’m working with several of her fabric collections, and I’m having a great time with it. This isn’t a true scrappy quilt, because I am using fabric I’ve cut from fat quarters for this iteration, but I have to say that I am tempted to make another one using true scraps, because boy, do I have a lot of them.

I usually start a new quilt top by making a prototype block, even when I’m sewing from a pattern, because I like to see what the basic blocks look like. I didn’t get around to making a prototype until Wednesday.

I think this would be an awesome quilt with a darker background, say navy blue or forest green, with brightly colored fabrics for the chain. This is, I think, a variation on an Irish Chain quilt, or some might say it’s a nine patch variation. Both would be accurate, I think. While this is a fairly easy block to make, it can be a little challenging to get the points lined up correctly.

I almost always start with a nine patch variation when I’ve been away from quilting for a long time. I like to make sure that my techniques are honed to line up points and such, and nine patches give me the ability to work on that. My next quilt will be the t-shirt quilt I’ve been working on for the last two years; I have started it and ripped it out a couple of times, and now I just want to get it done. But first, I’m going to finish the Spare Squares quilt, because I want to work on my piecing and quilting.

I thought I’d be able to get this quilt finished in a week, but these days I move more slowly than I used to, or maybe I was never as fast as I thought I was back in the day.

Thinking back, the main difference is that in the past, I would make nine patches using strip piecing, but in this particular case, I’m sewing each square to another square. Naturally, this is going to take longer than strip piecing. If you’re not familiar, strip piecing is when you sew long pieces of fabric together and then cut the units apart. What you end up with is a controlled chain like this.

Nine patch variations are some of my favorite quilts to make. There are so many things you can do with them. Check out these nine patch variations I’ve made in the past.

This is a baby quilt I made a few years ago. Simple but cute, I think. These photos were taken right after we moved into the house, so don’t judge me for the messy background.

You can use single blocks as part of your backing, if you have a mind. I thought the back of this quilt was almost as cute as the front.

This is the backing for my Little House on the Prairie quilt. It’s another nine patch that was pieced one square at a time because it’s made entirely of scraps from the front of the quilt. I love pieced backings, and this is one of my favorites.

Nine patch on point. I wanted something a little different, and when you put a block on point, it can change the way the whole quilt looks. What do you think, on point, or regular placement?

I love this Double Irish chain quilt I made for a friend a few years ago. I think it might be one of my absolute favorite quilts of all time. Isn’t the purple just beautiful? I might be a little prejudiced because purple is my favorite color of all time.

Obviously, I’ve made several nine patch variations, and these photos aren’t inclusive; there are way too many to include here! I think I’ve made more nine patch variations than any other block over the last 25 years.

Do you have a favorite block? Let me know in the comments!