The easiest quilts to make are perhaps four-patches upon which so many little girls have learned to sew, and “brick work,” that boon plan of piecing for the woman who has a lot of “sample” oblongs all shaped alike. Brick work is simply sewing into shallow rows a strip of equal size oblongs, then jogging the seam half way over for the next row, etc. Four patches are 2 dark and 2 light squares joined checkerboard fashion, and two of these alternated with plain square of equal size to make a large block.
A nine-patch demands that you get four intersections to meet exactly instead of just one as in the four patch. A double nine patch made of tiny squares cut about 1 1/4 inches square makes one of the daintiest quilts imaginable when flowerlike colors are used in profusion with white for the alternate squares. Using all four corners of little pieced nine patches as well as the center makes it even lovlier.
Quilts like Orange Peel, Old Maid’s Puzzle, and Windmill are elaborated four patches; while it is easy to trace the nine patch variation in many like Weathervane, Pin Wheels, Maple Leaf, Greek Cross, Jacob’s Ladder, etc.
Beggar’s Block, Burgoyne’s Quilt, and the triangle corners of the Skyrocket are sort of three patch placings. Then come a great group based on the diamond unit, the six and eight pointed stars, the piecing plus applique designs like Honey Bee, Noon Day Lily, Cherry Basket, and Friendship Ring. There are those that take curved seams, Mill Wheel, Rob Peter to Pay Paul, and the French Star and those that demand shallow angle seams like Baby’s Blocks and French Bouquet. Double Wedding Ring and Lone Star have the whole quilt top as a unit, although they, too, must work from small pieces to larger.
We do hope you will find the very one that appeals to you, and after that another and another as every one has possibilities of real beauty. It’s up to you – Choose a pattern!