I played around with Irish chain-like designs for so long recently (see Sunday sketches #497 to #500 and sorta #501) that I think nine-patches are still at the very forefront of my brain. The basic block in this week’s sketch features a nine-patch with a few add-ons.

The block came about in another design that I haven’t shared yet… basically there wasn’t room for a full granny squares* block in the space I had available, so I shortened those outer squares into rectangles (essentially half-squares) instead.

(*I don’t think that’s actually the correct name, but hopefully you get the idea – basically an arrangement of squares creating a checkerboard-y design on point.)

Anyway, I started by tiling the blocks and separating them with thin sashing. In this four-colour version, the blocks all share the same outer colour (black) and the colour of the outermost squares/rectangles (blue), but the crosses and cross centres are in alternating colours. It’s fun, but a bit blocky for me.

I tried the same layout and colouring rules without sashing, but that just made everything a bit more dense and blockier. Nuh-uh.

   

So I got rid of the sashing and made space between the blocks by alternating the colouring – now only every second block has the outer black shapes. Even though the blocks are essentially butting up against one another, you can’t really tell.

This version works well in a three-colour palette, although I tried a four-colour version too.

   

   

(As an aside, I tried colouring the same layout a slightly different way, and got a very vibrating version that relies heavily on the transparency effect. I love this one – when I focus on a single block, I feel like I can see adjacent blocks jiggling in my peripheral vision! – but ultimately it’s not the direction I want to go with this week’s sketch. I’ll shelve it for now, but might return to this one in future!)

   

There are, of course, other ways to colour this layout. Some I like more than others.

   

I decided that I like a multicolour version where the blocks are all different. Well, OK, not all of them are different. In these next versions, I’ve mixed up the colours in a six-colour palette, but there are only five unique blocks – I haven’t gone completely crazy with my colour combinations!

I removed the sashing temporarily to try this larger palette, and it does feel quite busy.

   

I prefer it with sashing, to let the blocks breathe a bit. The sashing gives my eye somewhere to rest and lets me appreciate each block without getting too much interference from adjacent blocks. But I know some people don’t love patterns with sashing, and others just prefer the look of no sashing. The great thing about quilt making is that you can do what you want!

   

This week’s sketch would be so easy to make! It’s just nine-patches (which are just squares), with some added rectangles around the outside. You could make blocks one at a time using whatever fabrics or scraps you had on hand, or you could chain-piece a bunch of identical blocks using yardage. This one’s definitely going on my list of things to make!