Blooming Nine Patch - an obsession

I love the Blooming Nine Patch pattern.  An original design by Blanche Young, it is featured in her book, "Tradition with a Twist" (CT Publishing - with Dalene Young Stone).  It's actually the cover quilt for that book.  But the BNP, as we devotees call it, is one of those quilts that takes on a different personality each time you make one.  And it's almost a mystery quilt, because it's almost impossible to imagine what it will look like until the top is done!

Blanche knew what she was doing when she made this a quilt for color exploration.  Each pair of fabrics touching each other must share at least one color.  If they share more colors, the quilt achieves a "blended" look.  If they share only one color, the different rounds are more distinct.

The combinations I like best are where the color(s) in the center are pale and kind of glowy.  Then to add a round that creates a distinctive path at about the halfway point.  These BNPs are so darned much fun to make that I have made eight so far...and I feel another one coming on.  

If you use a lot of floral fabrics, remember that nearly every floral includes a lot of green.  So my advice is to not let green be your only color in common between two fabrics.  Look for more interesting possibilities!

It's easy sewing and a great quilt for a determined beginner with some experience.  Lots of practice matching up those intersections!  And you learn a little something about fabric grain during assembly.  I think the secret of making this quilt is the "Friskies box".  I buy Friskies canned cat food by the case...it comes in a tray that is shrinkwrapped.  Two of those trays will hold a complete set of cut BNP strips and squares, in order; ready for you to sew.  I also like to make a key index card with sample fabrics, numbered, to make sure I remember which fabric I intended to use for each round. 

BTW, you need Blanche's book for your collection.  It has some great patterns with brilliantly written instructions.  And be aware that there is no fluff in the fabric requirements listed.  If you plan to make some cutting errors (!) buy a little more fabric than required. 

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person with an obsession for the Blooming Nine Patch - if you love them, too, let me know!  I see them in quilt shows all over the Pacific Northwest!

These photos are not too great, but you'll get the idea!

My first BNP - love the purple edge!   Hoffman florals are a great place to start if you're looking for BNP fabrics.

My second BNP - lots of blendy florals. Not visible in this photo - one of the rounds of squares is fussy cut cats in garden hats.  A treat for those who inspect the quilt closely!

My third BNP - I have seen several in this color combination at quilt shows.  Seems to be a a favorite to do them in all blues.  Mine has a pale lime green center which didn't photograph well.  This is the first one I did with one less round than the pattern calls for.  Makes a 62" x 72" quilt which is a little more useful for me.

 

My fourth BNP - for Trent H when he was about five years old.  This quilt is even smaller.  All jungle fabrics.  This was also my first attempt to do a little custom quilting by tracing the figures on tissue paper and quilting through the paper.  Then, as you see, I forgot to take a photo of the quilt after I removed the tissue...The quilted images turned out to be a "seek and find" game for him, which was an unexpected benefit.   

 

 

My fifth BNP - for Jennifer S. on her graduation from Eastern Washington University!  Creamy orange, pinks and greens.  A touch of blue.  Lots of fun!

 

 

 

My sixth BNP (can you believe it?) - This time a quilt for healthy eating!  All vegetable fabrics.  The purple edge is eggplant fabric.  I still have some fragments of some of these fabrics.  They're like sourdough, always waiting to be the start of another quilt...

 

 

My seventh BNP (are you still reading?) - another healthy eating quilt with all fruit fabrics.  Most of these fabrics have images that are small enough to fit in one square, except the watermelon fabric.  So the quilt has some scale changes as well as color changes.  The red on blue round is apple fabric and the last round is cherry fabric.  Photo taken at Calico Country in Lynden, WA.

 

 

My eighth BNP - that's all so far - this time not so much healthy eating but delicious drinking!  All coffee fabrics!  This one was a tough one to choose fabrics for, as most of the available coffee fabrics are brown!  And/or black!  But I found some that included teal and blue; the rounds are pretty distinct but that's what makes this pattern so fun!

 

 

Check out some other BNPs on the Internet and start thinking about your own.  This pattern started a trend in the early 1990's; there are other similar patterns around but Blanche started it all!  Thanks, Blanche!