What is a “nine patch”?

Details

“Nine patch” is a common quilting term that you will hear.

I remember wondering what a nine patch was when I read the Little House on the Prairie books as a child and they talked about Mary working on her nine patch quilt.

A nine patch block is one of the oldest and most traditional quilt blocks.

It is a block made up of nine squares laid out in a 3 x 3 layout.

Traditionally, the square would alternate light and dark fabric to give the appearance of a checkerboard but obviously there are many other fabric layout variations.

Besides this basic nine patch, you can also have nine patch blocks in which the squares are made up of smaller pieces like squares, rectangles or triangles. So even though something like a shoofly block has another name, it is also part of the nine patch family because it is 3 x 3.

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