So I went back and found my project from November of 2009 since the post from earlier this weekend.  It turns out that it may make more than 5 blocks.  Then again, I may have used 2 fat quarters, I’m not sure.

Strips I found when I opened the project box.

So for kicks and giggles I finished them up to see how many blocks I really had.

10 finished blocks

I have 10 blocks 5 of each color. The next step is to make sure they are all the same size.

Measure to find the smallest block.

So I measure all to find the smallest block and after I evened that one up (making it square to the shortest edge. I cut the other blocks down to that size in this case 6-1/4″

Then because I’ve been told that quilts with even numbered blocks aren’t really aesthetically pleasing (although my favorite quilt has 24 blocks). I added some blocks of solid fabric to place between the pieced blocks.

Cut 5 solid pieces the same size as the pieced blocks.

Then comes the fun part, layout.

Hm, I don’t think 5 blocks will be enough.

I cut 5 more of the solid blocks (used 2 fat quarters) for this layout.

And hmm, we have an even number of blocks – 4 rows of 5 for a total of 20.

The next step is sewing the blocks together.  The nice thing about this layout is there’s no worrying about seams laying right, every seam on the block is going against a blank block.  I sew the blocks to make rows.

two sets of two rows

I learned early on that it’s a pain to try to stitch a single row to a section of three rows or more rows. So I usually start on both ends of the quilt and work toward the center.

So this seemed a bit small, great for a crib size or wall hanging though so I added some borders. First I added a 2 inch stop border.

Top with stop border and mitered corners

Then I added a 6-1/2″ outer border.

Evening things out

After adding the side borders, I evened out the edge before putting on the bottom border.  I like having an even edge to work with.

Finished Quilt.

And we have a finished quilt. If I remember right, it took 4 fat quarters for the 9 patch blocks, 2 fat quarters for the solid blocks, 1 fat quarter for the stop border and 4 fat quarters for the outer border. So at 11 fat quarters which I got on sale for $1.50, that’s not a bad price for a throw quilt.