Design Floor Friday - The Making of a B9P - {A Blooming 9-Patch QAL} x 2

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!!  It's an EXTENDED version.  Why?  It's because this quilt was begun as an extended project.  My Sew Saturday Group decided to do a Blooming 9-Patch QAL and it was expanded into a Nimble Thimbles Bee QAL, since members liked the quilt, too.

3/?/18, Day -1, knocked out the strip cutting, while Quilting at Needleb's:

4/4/18, Day 0, Sew Day @ Hen's house, I didn't feel like schlepping my machine and was determined to cut all the squares needed to complete the quilt.

Sorry!  No photo!  :o((

5/5/18, Day 1, Cinco de Blooming 9-Patch.  I used the day to sew ALL of my strip sets:

Art in Search B9P plan!!  Upon reading her reminder, I trotted off to the local Dollar Store for baggies to put block parts in.

Here's how I used them on 6/23/18, Day 3 of B9P progress @ Garner Cinco de Blooming 9-Patch Quilt Party:

8/4/18, Day 4, Sew Saturday in South Raleigh.  Today, I added the 3rd round of 9-Patch blocks:

8/18/18, Day 5, NT Sew Day @ C Breeze Quilt Studio and I finished sewing the 9-Patches for Round 4:

9/8/18, Day 6, Sew Saturday at Lois's church in Knighrdale.  We met in the gym.  SEW... there was PLENTY of room to lay our quilts out on the floor.  I got another round done...

... But all of this putting down and picking up has GOT to stop:

9/15/18, Day 7, NT Sew Day (intended to be) @ C Breeze Quilt Studio, actually @ Needleb's is where I started sewing the corners of my quilt together and gathered the rest for a future sew day:

10/5/18, Day 8, The Original Sew/Craft Friend-zy... Additional sections were sewn into (partial) rows:

10/30/18, Day 8.5, November NT Nights meeting...

Sub-cutting for the final round of 9-Patches was completed during this evenings meeting.  I thought it might be nice to have is done, so that all I had to do on Saturday is sit down at the machine and sew, sew, sew.  :o))

11/3/18, Day 9, November Sew/Craft Friend-zy...

It was such a pleasure to be able to sit down and begin assembling the blocks for my next round!  I had the blocks half sewn in time for lunch.  By dinner, I was done with the blocks and had puzzled out how the various sections fit together.  (They've been CLEARLY labeled for next time!!)  By the time we packed up, I had last round of 9-Patches attached and the center of  the quilt top sewn together:

12/1/18, Day 10, Sew Saturday at Tiffany's house...

Small crowd today, if you can call three a crowd.  It was just right for the jobs we each needed to do.  I got the "border" round sewn to the ends of each row.  Row assembly will be saved for another day:

In retrospect, I think I should have cut additional squares to attach all the way around BEFORE adding the triangles.  :o((


1/5/19, Day 11, Sew/Craft Friend-zy...

It took a while for me to get settled and start sewing.  Eventually, the FIRST corner was assembled:

Several HOURS later, the LAST corner was ready to attach:

It took ALL DAY, but my Blooming 9-Patch is a completed top!!!

This has been a grand adventure.  Thank you to Tiffany for starting it and to Britt for expanding the fun (as well as creating more opportunities for making progress on my quilt!)

Here are all of the tops (and quilts) thus far...

Margaret was in the second group to start the QAL, but is recently retired and full of quilt making energy.  She managed to pull off the WIN for first completed Blooming 9-Patch quilt top:

September 2018

Of the original starters, Tiffany took that honor:

October 2018

Followed soon by Lisa, later that same day:

October 2018

Then Candy:

Britt finished her FIRST quilt top...

... Cheryl K even finish her gorgeous batik quilt top that fought her every step of the way:

... Before I finally assembled my quilt top:

Cheryl B. was the last to begin and the FIRST to complete her Blooming 9-Patch quilt:

Until next time...
This is how to finish a B9P quilt top in 13 days!!!
(And 9 months!  Some quilts are all about the process.)