I have been looking at disappearing 9 patch patterns, and I can't decide how many fabrics are necessary. One pattern says three, but I can see more than three in some of the pictures of 9 patch quilts.

One I really liked said to have the four outside blocks of the 9 block the same fabric, a focus fabric, and the middle block needs to be a dark color. I need more guidance on what the other four blocks should be....light, the same fabric, different...

Maybe I just haven't looked at enough pictures yet. Advice, anyone?? Thanks.

Hi Dina, I made one out of about 10 different fabrics and while I love the way it turned out I wouldn't recommend more than 5 or 6 at the most.
I will be posting my finished quilt in a couple of days.
One thing to remember is to make the middle block dark. It's really striking when you cut them all up and reassemble.

I have made 2 quilts using the D9P. I use 5 differen't fabrics. I usually have darks in the corners, lights in spots 2,4,6,and 8 and a color that pops for the centers. Clear as mud? :D

It all depends on the effect you want to achieve. I usually use 3 colors.. but that's just my preference. I have a tutorial and that's one thing I talked about. If I have a fabric I want to stay in larger chunks I put that in the 4 corners. the 4 "side" blocks will end up being strips. and the center block will end up being cut into quarters. Here's my favorite D9P.. http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/y...Picture062.jpg

I used 4 different black and white prints with a yellow center, I had to really decide how I wanted the finished quilt to look when I decided to make this quilt, I draw out my block ideas, then color them in with colored pencils to check out my ideas, or you can make a sample to figure it out, I will post my finished quilt picture soon, I like doing the D9 patchwork, but I had lay out the blocks to be sure I didn'y turn them upside down

When I make a D9P I take a good look at not only the colour value of the fabric but at the fabric pattern. My darkest fabric is always in the centre, the most patterned fabric (ie Winnie the Pooh) which won't be sliced in the outside corners and the medium quieter print that will end up as a rectangle shape when cut in the alternate squares. This makes a good balance as I don't want Winnie the Pooh cut into tiny little bits and it will show up in the finished quilt as the biggest focus square. The small dark squares will be marching all across the quilt on the diagonal and the medium quieter print will just end up all over the place as the background. This works for me.

I've made all of mine as scrap quilts, holding only the center square constant.

I like using 3 colors most times, but with this quilt I used one line of fabrics with yellow centers and blk background.

Wow, that is one beautiful quilt! I like your multi-colored thin border too. Thanks for all the help, everyone. Now I just need to figure out what my sister-in-law's favorite colors are. Her husband has not been any help. :(

I've made them different ways, and you obviously have a choice of how to select your 9 squares:

Let's think of your choices as #1, #2, and #3 (which could be LIGHT, MEDIUM, and DARK, or the reverse).

With three fabrics you'll use #1 for the center square (which will turn out to be the small squares in the final quilt), #2 for the four corner squares (these will turn out to be the big squares), and #3 for the non-corner outside squares (these will turn into the rectangles).

You could actually use 9 different fabrics, but it will work better if you group them as one for #1 (light or dark), four for #2 (probably all medium), and four for #3 (dark or light, the opposite of what you've chosen for #1).

I used the same fabric for all my mediums (#2), and different fabrics (all dark) for #3...liked the effect.

But it's your choice -- no wrong choices here :-)