Tiny Monster

Friends of our recently welcomed their first child into the world. Darling Husband wanted something with dragons. Sadly, the big box fabric store wasn't very helpful. They did have some fun, tiny monster fabric that we decided would be perfect. I decided to make another disappearing 9-patch. Because it is an easy pattern and you can do some fun things with it.

The tiny monster fabric and three solids became eleven 9-patch blocks. Then, they got cut down into 42 blocks. That odd-ball block ended up being only two blocks, the other half of that unit got put in with some of the other orphan blocks.

Since I had two distinct units, I tried a new layout and I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out. There are so many ways to get a great quilt out of this simple block.

After stabilizing the outer edge, I loaded it all up and got stitching. If I don't add a border, I stitch around the outside edge at about 1/8". That way I'm less likely to distort the edges or pull apart the seams when working with it. A border also does this stabilization, if you use a solid (not pieced) border.

I quilted with a right-angles meander that I hope mimics the tiny skyscrapers.

Labeled with the little monster's name and bound.

The last thing was to make a tote with some of the leftover fabric. Now it is ready for gifting.

Tools (affiliate links):
Creative Grids 6.5" x 24.5" Rectangle
Fiskars Rotary Cutter
Fiskars Self Healing Rotary Cutting Mat
BLACK+DECKER Vitessa Advanced Steam Iron
Grabbit Magnetic Pin Cushion
Fiskars 8-inch scissors