Disappearing Nine Patch Cupcake Cot Quilt

Back in March my Mum and I enjoyed a great little Patchwork & Quilting Workshop at the Brighton Sewing Centre.  It was open to all abilities and a bargain at £20 for 4 hours. 

I had bought the cupcake fabric from them the previous year, when I went to the shop to get advice and to buy a new sewing machine.  The girls were so helpful on which model to buy and I love my Janome TXL 607.

We already have some experience at patchwork, but its always good to pick up new tips. We both decided on the Disappearing Nine Patch Block and were amazed at how simple an idea can be so effective.

Basically you piece and sew 9 equal size squares together and then cut up and then across the middle of the nine patch block.  The four cut pieces are then re-sewn to create a new pattern. 

I decided to turn this into a cot quilt for my niece, Ellie, as we are both fans of cupcakes!  I gave it a simple white inner border, using complementing squares in pink and purple and then used the spotty turquoise fabric for the outer border, which I folded and hand-sewed onto the backing fabric.

I'm really chuffed with the backing fabric, which I found on sale in the children's section of Laura Ashley.  I think it makes a great reversible quilt, but then I am biased!

To speed up the quilting process, we found out about the use of 505 Fabric Adhesive at Cowslips Workshops (more on that weekend in the next blogpost!).  You spray your wadding (the middle of the quilt) and lay your backing fabric on and smooth out any creases.  Then turn the quilt over, spray the other side of the wadding and lay down your quilt top and smooth out.  This saves hours of tacking the 3 layers together and means you can get straight on with the quilting part of the quilt.

I hope she likes it!

Now I just need to crack on with a Daisy Quilt I started at Cowslip Workshops a couple of weekends back.  Here's a sneak preview.......

Happy sewing!