Once I had that first nine-patch block under my belt, I figured I’d continue on with all the variations on a nine-patch that are in this quilt (and there are quite a few of them).

My original ambitious plan was to make eight more nine-patch-esque blocks, take a picture of all nine blocks arranged in a nine-patch configuration (naturally), and write about it for my next blog entry.

Then reality, and math, reared its ugly head, and I calculated that at the rate I was going, it would be at least a month before I would be ready to write that post.

So, I dialed it back and decided I would finish four blocks and post about them, then do another post with the next four.

But now it has been a week and a half, and I’ve only done two and a quarter blocks.

So, I’m lowering expectations again, and posting about just two blocks this time. Hopefully there will be enough to talk about in each blog post, even if I’m only covering one or two blocks each time.

The top left block in the picture above is, of course, the nine-patch that I already did. The two new blocks are the two most nine-patch-ish nine-patch variations. I also included a CD in the bottom right corner, to give you an idea of how small these blocks really are (4 1/2″ square when completed; 5″ square right now, before they’ve been sewn to anything else).

The top right block is called Uncle Homer, and is essentially a nine-patch with a slightly bigger center block. The contrast fabric is one of the replacement cream fabrics I found at Keepsake Cottage. I think it ended up being a good fit with the rest of the fabrics.

The red fabric is proving to be a little more prone to unravelling than I’d like. I can’t decide if it’s the fabric, or just a side effect of the additional handling that hand piecing requires. Either way, I hope this isn’t going to be an ongoing problem.

The bottom left block in the picture is called Four Corner Press, and has an even larger center block. As the center block gets larger and larger, the corner squares are getting smaller and smaller. When finished, the corner squares on the Four Corner Press block will be only 3/4″ wide. I feel like assembling these blocks is easing me into the tiny pieces in the more advanced blocks.

That’s a good thing, because the number of pieces per block ramps up pretty quickly after this. The next block I’m doing has 25 pieces, and if you’re going to cram 25 pieces in to a 4.5″ x 4.5″ space, you know they’re going to be pretty small.

With all this practice, by the time I get to the really miniature pieces, I should be more than ready for them. Now that’s optimism!