Sunbeam Fabric Art makes the same nine patch twice, once from nine cut squares and once from strip sets. The interesting part is not which is faster. Both come down to whether the seams lock when the rows meet.
The first way is nine squares laid out, three rows sewn at a quarter inch, each pressed toward the darker fabric. Because the rows alternate dark and light, pressing toward the dark sends the allowances of neighboring rows in opposite directions on its own, which is what lets them nest. Barbara Brackman asks for a scant quarter inch through a nine patch, worth knowing if yours keep finishing a touch small.
She is good on what nesting feels like. A seam pressed to one side leaves one edge slightly higher than the other, so two rows facing opposite ways slide together and catch. She leaves both pieces flat and slides one across the other rather than lifting them, then clips each matched seam so nothing shifts on the way to the machine.
The second way is strip sets. Two inch strips, one set dark light dark and the other light dark light, pressed in opposite directions, then cut across into two inch segments. To keep those cuts square she lines a horizontal line on the ruler up with the horizontal seams rather than with the raw edge. The Quilter's Bible agrees this is the quicker route and adds the one thing the video leaves out: shorten the stitch length for strip piecing, because every cut crosses a seam and a short stitch keeps it from opening up.
Her last tip is for trimming. A nine patch has no seam through its center, so there is nothing to line a ruler up on. Fold it in half and finger press once each way. Two creases cross the middle and the ruler has something to sit on.
One number to read carefully. She cuts five inch squares and calls the result a fourteen inch nine patch. Fourteen is the block before it is sewn to anything. Joined on all four sides it finishes at thirteen and a half, each small square at four and a half.
The cutting chart in nine sizes and where nine patches go wrong are in our guide to the nine patch quilt block.
The channel is Sunbeam Fabric Art, with short block tutorials for using up a fabric stash.
