One of my angels sent me all of these 4 inch squares in every color you can imagine. I want to make one of those dissapearing nine patches out of them eventually but here is the problem. I am not sure how to combine all of the colors to make it look nice. Do I need to do all bolds, all pastels, and old-fashioned prints, etc? I do not have any art background, so studying the color wheel is confusing for me.

I want it to look scrappy and fun. I just can't start until I feel more confident, and it will be too much work to come out with something that looks ugly, especially when someone was sweet enough to give me this fabric!

Start by sorting the fabric into darks, lights and mediums. When I do scrappy, I use those to determine what goes where. Have fun!

I am a very visual person so I have to lay it all out and then just keep rearranging till I like it...sometimes even as I'm doing the final stitching together!

In general, you want to more or less either do a gradual progression from light to dark or else alternate the two.

As you can see on this one, I did a bit of both in the individual groups of strips. When I was doing the final layout, I switched triangles around so many times it wasn't funny! My goal was to have a fairly even distribution of the colors and the darks, without having any bits next to each other that were exactly alike.

Sorry I don't have a picture of the whole thing so you can see the placement of all of it together.

Close your eyes and pull. Just do it!

If you have further questions, PM me and I'll give you my email address so you can send me pictures of what you're working on so I can play too! Getting the colors and placement 'right' is the most fun part for me.

I agree. Put all in a paper sack, pull one out, sew it on, pull another out, sew it on AND DON'T fret....... they really turn out beautiful. Also you will need one fabric for all of the center blocks in the 9 patch. Here is some scrappy blocks I put together. These will go into a quilt for me eventually.... This is the Tennessee block from quilters cache.

I'm making a D9P right now and I used a collection of charm packs- April Cornell's Portugal. I'm really liking how it's turning out. I put the darker color in the center patch and tried to use lights next to it, mediums in the corners but you know what?? It doesn't really matter! It's a fun quilt to make. I say anything goes with that one :D
Be sure to post pics!

Using random pieces in a scrappy can be quite liberating. If the colors go together in the pile, they will go together in the quilt. If you can't give up that much control, presort them into values (dark - medium - light) like has already been suggested, then pull from those piles. I've seen the rule that you can ONLY exchange if you pull the same piece as you just had. Other than that, use what you pull and trust the process. It is so much fun.

Coyote, I love how that is turning out!! :D

Very nice quilt top you have going there.

I like organized scrappy so if 2 similar colors came together in the same place - I'd HAVE to move them.

Coyote, that is really pretty!

I just finished a D9P and used white (light),black (dark, for the center, and red prints (medium) I Used red for the outside corner blocks. Really tunred out nice.I'd send a pic but don't do't how to post on the forum. I sashed the blocks with black...really pops!

IMO, you need to make sure you have strong contrast otherwise just a mess of colors.

I love this pattern and plan to do another one soon. Great way to get rid of fab, which is what I am trying so hard to do.