Cheerful Disappearing Sashed 9 Patch!

I've been meaning to make this block for a few weeks now, since I saw a video of how to make it by the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  You will probably want to watch their video, but I'm going to set out the steps for how to make it here, just in case I want to remind myself of it again without video!

1) Set out your fabrics (mine are 5" charm squares and 2 1/2" strips of sashing.  Bear in mind the five charms that make the cross shape will be chopped up, so if you want to retain a particular motif whole make sure that it goes into one of the corner squares.

 2) Sew together.  You can see why it's called 9 patch window pane too, can't you?

3) Cut into quarters.

 4) Decide on your layout.  This is a great one that doesn't rely on seams matching up (!).

5) This is the layout that I chose this time around.

Sew the quarters together.

Obviously, you might want to make a quilt with more blocks than this, but as I was making just one to see what it was like, I turned it into a  baby quilt with a couple of borders.

 You can see it (well, the quilt top - I haven't backed, basted and quilted it yet) here on my design wall. 

The block itself comes out as 17" square (I think!).  I added three borders (white, batik with cornerstones, white) each cut 2 1/2" wide, so I have a finished baby quilt of about 29" square.

It's really cheerful!  It makes me happy to be sewing!

I also added a fusible design to a t-shirt that was too plain.

I used the shapes from pilofabrics raw edge applique tutorial, added fusible and fabric, and then outline stitched them.  A fast and easy way to add a little decoration!

 Finally, I hung up my Dear Jane.  Of course, as it's on a turn in the stairs it can't be snapped without the banisters in the picture too, but it too makes me feel cheerful every time that I see it!

This is the view that I usually have of it, looking up at it.

This is how it looks from above.  The other part of it, the little bit, won't be hung above the window until it's had an outing to my group's quilt show later this month - I think that it's a task that DH and I will only want to do once!

Hope that you can find things to make you cheerful too!