The puppy had a sleepy under-the-weather day so I seized the opportunity and assembled the blocks I had made for the the “Nine Patch Challenge” quilt from the book, Just One Charm Patch Quilts.

The blocks in this quilt are set “on point” so they look like diamonds rather than squares. I generally don’t like making on-point quilts because of all the setting triangles needed along the sides of the quilt to make the sides straight. But the instructions and diagrams in this book were excellent and so there was none of the hassles and frustration that often occur with on-point quilts. Whew!

Here’s what it looked liked laying out the blocks before sewing them together. My design wall needs to be replaced, so it was easier just to put everything on the floor this time. You can see I had the book open to follow the layout diagram.

The setting triangles on the sides of the quilt are squares cut in half. That means the free side of all those blocks are fabric cut on the bias. That means they are all s-t-r-e-t-c-h-y and have to be handled gently. (Tip: If you are worried about this stretch, or are new to quilting or haven’t sewed a lot, starching the fabric with a spray starch and ironing it before you cut it will help by limiting some of the stretchiness).

The pattern calls for a border of the background fabric and this is one instance where you really need the border—it stabilizes all those stretchy-sided setting blocks, giving the finished quilt top the stability it needs. I had extra fabric so I cut my borders wider than what the pattern called for. I sort of wish I’d made them even wider, but it’s done now, so I’m calling it good!

This is the first time I’ve used this book and I’m really happy with how this pattern worked. There are some other intriguing patterns in the book so I know I’ll make at least a couple others.

The puppy is back to his bouncy self, so this quilt top is joining a growing stack of tops in need to quilting.