Patriotic tossed nines for February

In February the Facebook Quilt Block Swap Group will celebrate our first full year.  We will also be swapping our seventh set of quilt blocks.  The way our swap works is you send me five of the same block, I swap them with other blocks received from other swappers &amp you get five (hopefully) different ones back. Blocks must be in-house by the deadline- always the last Saturday of an even numbered month or, in this case, Saturday February 27th, 2010.  Blocks are swapped on Sunday of the same week-end & brought to the Post Office on Monday.

Along with your five blocks you need to include a self addressed, stamped envelope to return your blocks to you.  If you use the same size envelope as you mailed your original blocks out in, postage should be exactly the same.

You can send as many sets as you like, so long as they are in sets of FIVE.  All of your sets do not need to be the same, but they can be (this does, however, increase the likelihood of getting one of your own blocks back).  Within each set, the blocks should be more or less the same.

You can also include a 6th Block.  The 6th Block will go to whatever person or persons have asked for the 6th Blocks for that particular swap to make a quilt (or quilts) for a community service type project.  There are some other guidelines for 6th Blocks & they are all on the Facebook group.  This months group is Quilts of Valor & one of the original swap group swappers is getting these blocks to make a quilt from the group. 


Enough about that, here is this month's swap block:  Patriotic Tossed Nines

1.  Cut 5" squares of eight different red, blue, red&blue, red&white. blue&white OR red&white&blue fabrics.  you will also need one 5" square in white for the center.  A note about colors:  In the example, I used white muslin, but white in this instance means reads as white.  it could be white on white, it could be a soft cream (but not a light brown, please), it could be white with another color in it very peripherally.  If you are looking at a piece of fabric & are unsure if it "reads as" white or blue or red or whatever, it is best to avoid it.




2.  Assemble a traditional 9-patch (again, the center square must be white) using the 1/4" seam allowance.  If it is easier for you make strips & cut them down, then by all means do it that way.

3.  Once the 9-patch is assembled, cut it in half through the center

& then again, lengthwise.

4.  Turn two of the opposite pieces so that the small white square that had been on the inside are now opposite outside corners. 

5. Reassemble so the four squares again become a single block & STOP.  When you get your swapped blocks back you will want to square them HOWEVER it makes sense for this to be done right before assembling the squares. 

Remember to make enough blocks to swap (5), maybe even one to donate (the 6th Block) & at least one to keep. 


//If you not currently part of the swap group, but you are interested in joining our swap group, you are very very welcome BUT it would make my life A LOT easier if you joined through Facebook.   Log into Facebook, search "quilt block swap" & find the Group.  There will be a picture of the current block as the profile photo.  Ask to join & you should be approved within a day or two.  If you are not on Facebook, but still interested, go HERE & leave a comment after this post with your e-mail address HOWEVER be warned:  I really cannot do trouble-shooting, take future block suggestions, handle requests to receive 6th blocks, etc. via individual e-mail messages.  The advantage of doing it all through Facebook is all the information is in one place you can check at your leisure.