Nine Patch Progress - The Eighth Section

 I seem to be avoiding the large upper right hand section (32” x 36”) like the plague.  So after tackling the center section, I turned my attention to the lower right. This section measures 12” x 23” and needed to balance out the lightness of the lower left and the mid-tones of the upper left without taking anything away from the center.  No short order there.  If there appears to be a method to my madness, er, design, there’s not.  At least not a conscious, totally graphed out big picture design plan like I usually do ahead of starting a project.   This is turning out more of a ‘let’s work on each section as a complete mini quilt’ and then, ‘let’s see how they all fit together’ project.

In actuality, if I really think about it, it totally makes sense to do the largest section last.  It will incorporate more fabrics, values and needs to bring the whole quilt all together.  Or maybe, I can justify just about anything and everything if I put my mind to it.

The eighth section had its own challenges.  The dimensions were not evenly divisible, not by length (32”) or width (12”) or patches (3 x 3 or 9).  That meant my blocks were not going to be square but rectangular instead, and they still needed to be nine patches but different, as I wanted balance, but not boring, here for the repeated blocks.

Graph paper before fabric:

I wanted the lightest value to be light but more of a medium light – like the lightest fabric from the upper left. So I used that fabric as the largest rectangle in my block and shaded from there. 

For the center row of each block, I ended up using the same three focus fabrics from the upper left.  For the outside rows in each block, I went dark – indigo dark – and shaded to lighter dark values.  I was shooting for a framed leaded glass Prairie Style window effect for the blocks.  The center ‘waves of dots’ fabric is actually directional, but that got lost due to the small size of the rectangle.  

I cut and alternated the direction in each block and will quilt it in that same direction to add the lost movement back into the block. That’s the plan anyway. 

I didn’t quilt this section right after finishing it but I did quilt the center section.  As soon as this one is quilted, I’ll show both of them together.   In the meantime, here’s a shot of the design wall with Eight of Nine in place.

Eight down, One to go!