how to make disappearing nine patch quilts

By Hatun Comak Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Disappearing nine patch quilt is perfect to make a quick pieced quilt blocks and quilts. A simple nine patch block is sliced in half twice to create four smaller units so that you can make disappearing nine patch quilts.

Choosing fabric colours is an important part of quilting in order to create the desired effect for this quilt pattern. Here I chose a darker fabric for the center. The center square will turn into a small corner square of the new block after nine patch block is sliced into four sections.
You can also use fabrics that work well with any special day: Christmas, Valentine, Easter, Halloween or just choose any color combinations that appel to you.

Step by step tutorial

1- Assemble the nine patch in a traditional way, where it will look like an X with dark squares in the center and corners and lighter squares in the middle.

Remember that there are no definite rules of assembling the nine patch. You can create your own quilt blocks from the basic pattern by experimenting different variations of colors.

Here I preferred dark blue for the center, red for each corner of the black and the same light colour in the middle.

In order to make nine patch block, cut nine squares each of which measures 5"x5"; 1 dark, 4 medium and 4 light colour.
Below is my colour choices:


2- Sew nine patch together with a quarter inch seam allowance. You sew one row at a time.



3- When all the squares in a row are sewn together, press the seam allowances in each row in different direction.


4- Sew the three rows together. While sewing them, dont forget to pin at each intersection to make sure that the corners of the squares match up with the corners in the next row. Press seam allowances open.




5- Using a rotary cutter, slice the block in half vertically. Now you have two vertical segments.


6- Cut each segment horizontally to produce a total of four squares.


7- Now it is time to rearrange your cut-up blocks into a new pattern.  You can arrange them however you like. Take some time and try different variations until you find your favourite. Below are some variations of rearranging the block patterns of mine.



After arranging the blocks in a way you like, sew the four blocks together. You need to get your corners match for a perfect look. Again you need to pin them before sewing.


Here is the final result. After making three more disapperaring nine patch blocks, these cutie will turn into a table topper.
Hatun Çomak

I'm Hatun from Turkiye. I love quilting and patchwork and this is my patchworld. I share my projects, process, patterns and tutorials here in my blog. .