When I first started quilting, I thought the disappearing nine-patch block was like magic! Before I knew anything about modern fabric or designers, I found a Flea Market Fancy 6″ charm pack at my very traditional LQS and got to work.
The traditional nine-patch was a little busy for me, but add some sashing and boom! I was in love. Quick, easy, and a perfect, fun block for charm packs or squares of any size.
So here’s a quick breakdown on how this goes together (and finishing this is high on my WIP list, so I’ll hopefully post a completed pic soon!)…
The charm pack I had was 6″ squares, but you can use any size squares, as well as any size sashing. My strips are 1.5″ cut for a 1″ finished sashing.
Start by sewing three rows of three squares each with sashing strips between.
Next you will piece the three rows together with sashing strips to create your starting block and then cut it in half both ways to create four blocks.
You can now piece these blocks together, with or without more sashing, in any arrangement you like. They can all go in the same orientation for a symmetrical look or you can vary them. (The above pic is just a mock up if you’re wondering why my seams look funny!)
So there you have it! This simple block has so many possibilities. Use bold colors and black sashing for a stained glass window effect or try using big prints in just the squares that don’t get cut and use solids for the rest of the blocks and the sashing.
lillyella 
WOW what a sensational way to refresh this standard. I’ve made a couple of D9Ps in my life and have seen a few others worth making. But this really steps it up. Thanks for sharing.
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I’m new to quilting, but this gives me some help to create a great D9P. Thanks
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I’ve only done one D9P and I agree it looks a little busy. I LOVE your idea to add smashing! Brilliant! I’ll definitely give it a try 😁
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Dang auto correct… smashing=sashing!
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I really love your idea. I was making my first D9P when I found a picture of your quilt. I am not sure what I’m going to do because I already made 16 nine patches before I started doing the ‘disappearing’ part and discovered that I didn’t really like the way it was coming out. :-/. I stopped what I was doing and made a couple of the sets like yours. I used black sashing and they look perfect. I love it! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
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Maybe you can use the first 16 around the borders
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I love this 9 patch best of all the 9 patch quilts blocks I’ve seen. It’s beautiful Thanks for sharing.
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Oh, my gosh! I had save a snapshot of this quilt and placed it in a binder without any instructions, or even what blog I found it on. I came here to see if there was any new information about the Butterfly Charm blocks, and lo and behold I find this beautiful quilt tutorial that I had no idea where I had seen it.!!! Thank you Nicole for keeping it up on the site. So many times, bloggers take things down and you can’t find information. It’s good when you can find it, say if your pc hard drive seizes up one day and you have to buy a new one and start all over. (True story). Thank God I found most of my internet-found patterns save onto a flash drive that I had forgotten I had backed up my files to!
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Do you have the complete instructions for the disappearing 9 patch quilt that you have above on your site that includes measurements of pieces to cut and finished size of the quilt? It is the perfect quilt that I would like to make with fabric I have. Thank you.
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I just found this article and it’s perfect for the memory quilt I will be making. Thank you so much! The sashing will make the “shirt” blocks really pop.
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