I have seen on another blog a tutorial making 9-patch blocks to cut apart and then manipulate to form a quilt that looks like you took the time to cut out sashing and corner posts/cornerstones. (It is a disappearing 9 patch but done in a way I'd not done it before.) I decided to use my AccuQuilt cutter and do a quick runner for my kitchen island. Here is how I did it.
First, I cut out 4 1/2 inch squares. I sewed them into 9-patch blocks being certain to put my FRUIT squares on the 4 corners...a DARK GREEN square right smack in the middle....and my light green squares in the remaining spaces...and I sewed them together as you see in the following photos. (I used 3 fruit fabrics...blueberries, cherries, and strawberries.) I made several blocks.......and do end up with a quarter or two left over to go into my "orphan" pile.....the number you make depends on the size of the runner you want.
Next I cut these blocks all into quarters with one cut vertically and one horizontally...being certain to cut them right in the middle so they were equal in size......
Then you turn all your quarter-blocks so that it will look like you have sashing and corner posts once you join them together.....these are not yet joined, as you can see
Next...decide on how you want them arranged. I did it first in EQ so I knew where I wanted each kind of fruit to be in my layout. I then sewed them into rows and then sewed the rows together.......this next photo shows just the top row sewn together. Now....look closely at that next photo and you will see that once these 3 rows were sewn together, there was NO "sashing" and "posts" at the top of the piece OR on the left side. This is the expected result of working with the D9P....2 sides will be "unfinished"... so....if you want the look of "sashing" and "posts" on all 4 sides (which I think it needs), you must do a little additional work (described below the next photo).
I did want the look of sashing and posts all around, so I took some additional dark green and light green squares and cut them as follows.....cut the light greens in half and the dark greens into quarters. I then sewed them, in the old-fashioned way (LOL)to make my strips to finish the "sashing" and "posts".
BAD PAT forgot to take a picture of the strips I sewed, but I'm sure you can figure that part out. Once I had the strips made, I attached them to the top edge and left edge of the runner and it looked like this.
Next you can see it with the binding...might be hard to see unless you enlarge it. I then show a picture that is a close-up of the quilting...which was all straight-line using a fancy stitch on my machine. This whole project...start to finish... took just a couple of hours. It would make a quick and fun hostess gift, I think. If you study my runner, you can see I only had to make just two 9-patches with blueberry fabric in all 4 corners.....only one 9-patch with cherries in the 4 corners....and then only one 9-patch with cherries in the 4 corners just FOUR 9-patch blocks all together (and then cut each into quarters) BUT only had to use three/fourths of the cherry block....so the remaining section of the cherry block is now in my orphan block baggie!
Here is a close-up of the quilting. It is, basically, nothing more than stitch-in-the-ditch using a fancy stitch on my machine. Of course, you could quilt it differently and take the time to quilt in each square, but I wanted fast and easy the other day! LOL
For the backing fabric (shown below), I used cotton fabric that matches one of the sets of valances I've made for the kitchen, so this runner can do double-duty!!! I LOVE to make things that are reversible...even though the other side isn't even pieced. I actually used ONLY stash fabrics for all of this...and the fruit fabrics were all in my SCRAP basket. So.....this was a fun project (made extra-quick by using my AccuQuilt GO to cut the 4 1/2 inch squares) and also helped me to do more "stash busting"!!! I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and if you have questions, feel free to ask.
I also decided to stay in the red, white, and blue "mood" and put together a pineapple block in that color scheme. A gal I know is collecting them as a surprise for a friend of hers who is about to move....so this will be sent in the mail for that person. (We were asked to put our name and state in the center.) This uses 1 1/2 inch strips, so....it was easy to cut a whole bunch of them on the GO! cutter....and I have some leftovers if I want to do more R/W/B pineapple blocks someday.
Next I cut these blocks all into quarters with one cut vertically and one horizontally...being certain to cut them right in the middle so they were equal in size......
Then you turn all your quarter-blocks so that it will look like you have sashing and corner posts once you join them together.....these are not yet joined, as you can see
Next...decide on how you want them arranged. I did it first in EQ so I knew where I wanted each kind of fruit to be in my layout. I then sewed them into rows and then sewed the rows together.......this next photo shows just the top row sewn together. Now....look closely at that next photo and you will see that once these 3 rows were sewn together, there was NO "sashing" and "posts" at the top of the piece OR on the left side. This is the expected result of working with the D9P....2 sides will be "unfinished"... so....if you want the look of "sashing" and "posts" on all 4 sides (which I think it needs), you must do a little additional work (described below the next photo).
I did want the look of sashing and posts all around, so I took some additional dark green and light green squares and cut them as follows.....cut the light greens in half and the dark greens into quarters. I then sewed them, in the old-fashioned way (LOL)to make my strips to finish the "sashing" and "posts". 
BAD PAT forgot to take a picture of the strips I sewed, but I'm sure you can figure that part out. Once I had the strips made, I attached them to the top edge and left edge of the runner and it looked like this.
Next you can see it with the binding...might be hard to see unless you enlarge it. I then show a picture that is a close-up of the quilting...which was all straight-line using a fancy stitch on my machine. This whole project...start to finish... took just a couple of hours. It would make a quick and fun hostess gift, I think. If you study my runner, you can see I only had to make just two 9-patches with blueberry fabric in all 4 corners.....only one 9-patch with cherries in the 4 corners....and then only one 9-patch with cherries in the 4 corners just FOUR 9-patch blocks all together (and then cut each into quarters) BUT only had to use three/fourths of the cherry block....so the remaining section of the cherry block is now in my orphan block baggie!
Here is a close-up of the quilting. It is, basically, nothing more than stitch-in-the-ditch using a fancy stitch on my machine. Of course, you could quilt it differently and take the time to quilt in each square, but I wanted fast and easy the other day! LOL
For the backing fabric (shown below), I used cotton fabric that matches one of the sets of valances I've made for the kitchen, so this runner can do double-duty!!! I LOVE to make things that are reversible...even though the other side isn't even pieced. I actually used ONLY stash fabrics for all of this...and the fruit fabrics were all in my SCRAP basket. So.....this was a fun project (made extra-quick by using my AccuQuilt GO to cut the 4 1/2 inch squares) and also helped me to do more "stash busting"!!! I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and if you have questions, feel free to ask.
And here is a closeup of one section of it. The fabric that appears white actually has small, blue polka dots on a white background....which you can't really see easily here.
I need to stop cutting fabric for a day or two and practice quilting, so I can maybe get these tops turned into actual quilts myself and not have to send them out to be done. I also want to straighten up some things in my sewing space and rearrange things. Hubby built a nook, of sorts, for my GO and the dies...so that was terrific!
And thanks to so many of you who are on Facebook and saw it was my birthday yesterday and wished me a Happy Birthday. It was fun to see all those messages posted there throughout the day!!!
