Spinning Nines Tutorial – A New Block and A Pieced & Quilted Table Runner

  I used the fabric line Dandelion Daydream by Mayberry for this fantastic new Table Runner.  It’s not my typical choice for fabrics but when I saw it I knew I had to have it and make something with it! I just love these colors together – so classic and rich.    Well – in my dreams I came up with a new ‘spin’ on the nine patch. Most of us quilter’s know how to make a Disappearing Nine Patch block by cutting the nine patch in half horizontally and vertically – well – what happens to a Nine Patch when you cut it in half diagonally – you get Spinning Nines!

Directions

Start by cutting out 1 set of 5 ‘dark’ fabrics and 4 ‘light’ or ‘medium’ fabrics into 3.5” strips WOF.  Cut these strips in half.  Pair up 12 of the strips – one dark to one light/medium and sew together.  Iron towards the darker fabric.  Add a dark fabric to the opposite side of the light strips on some and a light fabric to the opposite side of a dark strip on others.  Once you have these strip sets made cut them into 3.5” stirps the long way to create your nine patches.  You’ll want four squares made with 5 lights and 4 made with 5 darks.  Lay them out so the darks and lights go every other like a checkerboard.     Once you have a general layout figured out take your nine patches off the wall.  Here’s the ‘trick’ (not much of one). You’re going to cut your nine patch in half diagonally.  Do this with all the blocks you created.  Swap triangles with light centers with triangles that are dark.  You can see what I mean in the picture of the block above.  I would recommend laying out all your triangles so you make sure you have opposite darks/lights.  You can see in the picture above something is wonky with the top two blocks.  When I stepped back and looked I saw it before I sewed everything together.  Sew them together back into a square.  Square blocks down to 8.5”.     Once your blocks are all square, sew them together into a 2 x 4 block table runner.  How cool does that look!  I have decided to name it a ‘Spinning Nine’ Block.  I decided that this runner just needed a simple straight line angled stitching.  I LOVE the look of this quilting and think it’s perfect for the table runner – my ‘Spinning Nines’    I bound my final runner with the same diagonal print I used on some of my squares in my nine patch.  Final Table Runner Size:  16” x 32” Please let me know if you have any questions about how to make your own Spinning Nine Blocks!  I realize while I was putting this tutorial together I may need to take more pictures of my process.  I have more patterns you can do with this block/technique coming soon so be sure to stop back!