As I continue designing my Jo-Ann fabrics quilt, I decided to use disappearing 9 patch blocks (DNP) along with the log cabin blocks. If you aren't familiar with the DNP block, it's a really simple, yet deceptively complex block. And easy, easy to make.

Just start with a 9 patch block. I wanted a plain block with only the purple center for my splash of color. (Again, the center block is a true purple, not a blue-purple.) Obviously, you could use as many as 9 different fabrics, which would give you lots and lots of setting options.




Cut your 9 patch into quarters. Cut the block in half, rotate, and cut it in half the other way, making four smaller blocks. Your basic 9 patch has now disappeared!




This shows two 9 patch blocks that have been cut into DNP blocks. I now have 8 DNP blocks made from two 9 patch blocks (they multiply like rabbits!) and I just lined these up without any particular planning. You can see how the setting possibilities are almost endless. And also try to imagine how complex these settings can become if you were using more colors in your original 9 patch.



I hope you'll give these a try. You can really complete a quilt top pretty quickly using this method. My DNP blocks are 4", just like my log cabins, so it will be fairly time consuming to make boatloads of these, but normally, you would be making larger blocks and building your quilt very fast. Have fun!