A 9 patch challenge...

Almost to the half-way point.

My local quilt store - Thimble Pleasures - issued a challenge - 1 9 patch/day for September - November and there will be a gathering in December to assemble the quilts.  Part of the challenge is to get you sewing for 10-15 minutes a day. Unfortunately, due to my wild travel schedule in September-October, I am a little bit behind, but have plans to catch up.  I think another goal of the project was to help people reduce their stash, and reduce their scraps or pre-cut blocks. However, I am on the stash building side, so have used this as an excuse to add a few fabrics to my collection - and further build my stash. 

When I came home from Denmark & Cameroon and unpacked, I got overwhelmed by the volume of fabric on my sewing table, a place I had pledged to keep clean as it is in the corner of our bedroom.

Sunday I started tackling the problem.  I did three loads of fabric, with a color catcher to prevent tragedies, to catch up on the fabric that is in the queue for the next projects (the Log Cabin and the table runner are washed, pressed, starched and ready to go).

Monday I opened up my new iron and re-pressed blocks that ended up wrinkled at the bottom of the pile and starched and pressed the fabric that was washed on Sunday.  Gus griped about the starch while I was working as he planted himself next to the ironing board to do his reading.  We then played part of a game of monopoly (I'm being whomped at the moment - he owns both Boardwalk and Park Place, fortunately hasn't started building on them - though that doesn't seem to be a problem for me yet as I keep landing on Go to Jail - but I digress) while I continued to press fabric.

Tuesday I ignored the call of the fabric.

Wednesday I re-pressed the strips that are waiting to be transformed into 9 patch blocks as they got crushed too, and straightened and pressed 3 more fabrics for my 9-patch project - while listening to Gus read.  We then took turns reading aloud - me from Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid and Gus from the Magic Treehouse - Afternoon on the Amazon.

Thursday - cut what should be the final 21 strips needed and pressed them flat. Friday I hope to match up all of the cut strips so that I can sew the together and then cut again.  Did learn that cutting height makes a difference. I was cutting standing at the ironing board last night, and while it is not as stable as I'd like, it was much easier on my body to make accurate cuts.

I bought the dolphin batik because Gus's school mascot is the Dolphins.  I then added some solids in teal, royal and purple and branched out to other batiks with varying intensities of teal, blue and purple.  I'm thinking about using white sashing between the blocks and probably a white or light blue back.  It will be interesting to see how this one comes out as I am doing this without a set pattern.