Another Disappearing 9 Patch
The whole thing depends on what colors you put in which places on the original 9 Patch. For this one I put the rust color in the center of the patch, the medium blue in the middle ‘cross’, and the dark blue and cream in the corners. That meant that the rust would always be a small square, and the medium blue would always be a rectangle, while the dark blue and cream would always be whole squares.
And if you are going with this type of finished design, that means that you can do strip piecing to make the 9 Patches. Traditional piecing means you would cut out all 9 squares, then seam them all together to make a 9 Patch. But strip piecing means that you can cut a strip of dark blue, medium blue, and cream, that are whatever width x the whole length of fabric. So in this case 3.5" x 42". You then sew the strips along the whole length, THEN cut them into 3.5" cross pieces. This makes piecing faster, and you’re not wasting as much thread. And the added benefit is that your blocks will come out straighter and less chance of being wonky. If you make the block the Traditional way, it would have 8 individual seams to put it together. (Think of each seam as a chance for wonkiness.) But if you’ve strip pieced, then 6 of those seams are pre-done, and already cut straight. Leaving you just 2 more seams to complete the block. (Two seams, instead of 8, means less chance of wonk.)