Nine Ball - Quilt of the Week

 Nine Ball, 20" x 20", handmade by Pam Geisel

The traditional block for the sixth Focus Through the Prism quilt was the Nine Patch block. Both Positively Pinwheels, and to an extent Chasing Geese were already arranged in a Nine Patch fashion so technically this is a double nine patch. The four outside blocks are also little nine patches.

One thing about working in a series is the farther along you go, the fewer decisions you have to make because you've already made most of them. By this point I only had two colors left so I only had to decide what colors to put where within the Nine Patch blocks, what to do with the yarn shape, and what to name it.

The "What to name it" question was key for the theme of this quilt. I thought about phrases with the word "Nine" in them and when I thought of the pool game "Nine Ball" I realized that my focal color was green, the same color as the cloth on a pool table.

I did some research to find out what colors the balls are for the game Nine Ball and decided that would be the colors I'd use in my Nine Patches. I did have to make one small change, the 7 ball is usually burgundy and not only did I not want to introduce a new color at this point, I wanted to use all of the colors from the Focus Through the Prism set so I used my artistic license and changed it to the only color not represented, the blue color (I used the indigo for the blue ball). You might notice that the striped 9 ball (in the center of the Nine Patches), is made with two colors.

All of the seven quilts in the Focus Through the Prism series:

- Use all of the seven colors but have one main color (with smaller pieces of fabric almost the same color to give it some visual texture)

- Have a black border with brown stars

- Have bits of the focus color on the black square in the middle, on the border, and on top of the other colors

- Have a piece of black yarn couched on top

- Have curved quilting lines 1/4" apart that echo the shape of the yarn

In this piece the focus color is GREEN and the yarn represents A POOL CUE AND BALL.

My series was featured in Art Quilting Studio Magazine's Autumn 2018 issue on working in a series and they were also included with several quilts that other people made for the Focus Through the Prism challenge including the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in 2016. Above is Nine Ball with some of the other green quilts.

Because this is the Quilt of the Week, it is 10% off the original price of $300 and as a special deal, all of the Focus Through the Prism quilts are 10% off through 5/16/21 if you purchase directly from me. Details can be found here. 

Project Quilting's Focus Through the Prism: All Seven

Here are all seven of my art quilts that I made for Project Quilting's "Focus Through the Prism" challenge. (Click on the image to see larger.)

To participate you needed to purchase a ROYGBIV hand-dyed bundle of fabric from Cherrywood Fabrics and then at the beginning of the month a traditional quilting block was posted. Participants chose which of the seven focus fabrics they want to emphasize for the month, but other fabrics could be added. All quilts are 20" x 20" and the hope is to exhibit them together in the future.

I decided to make a series for my seven, since we were already constrained my size and color palette. I made mine in a nine-patch format around a solid black center square, with 2.5" borders of black with gold stars. Along with being the most prevalent color, the focus color has triangle shapes fused onto the center black square, on the borders, and on the other colors.

The backgrounds are pieced with the Cherrywood Fabric then smaller pieces of other fabrics that are almost the same color are fused on top of it.

Each piece has a pieces of black yarn arranged in an intentional fashion and couched down. The quilting lines echo the yarn 1/4" away with black thread. All are faced so there is no visible binding.

Here are my seven, with links to the blog post about each one:

Title : Monkey Tail
Month : May
Traditional Square : Monkey Wrench (aka Churn Dash)
Focus Color : Blue
Yarn Represents : A monkey's tail
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/05/monkey-tail-project-quilting.html

Title : A Second Self
Month : June
Traditional Square : Friendship Star
Focus Color : Yellow
Yarn Represents : Celtic friendship symbol (simplified)
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-second-self-project-quilting.html

Title : Cabin Sweet Cabin
Month : July
Traditional Square : Log Cabin
Focus Color : Purple
Yarn Represents : Smoke rising from a chimney
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/07/cabin-sweet-cabin-project-quilting.html

Title : Positively Pinwheels
Month : August
Traditional Square : Pinwheel
Focus Color : Orange
Yarn Represents : Wind blowing
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/08/positively-pinwheels-project-quilting.html

Title : Chasing Geese
Month : September
Traditional Square : Flying Geese
Focus Color : Indigo
Yarn Represents : A bird in flight
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/09/chasing-geese-project-quilting.html

Title : Nine Ball
Month : October
Traditional Square : Nine Patch
Focus Color : Green
Yarn Represents : A pool stick and cue ball
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/10/nine-ball-project-quilting.html

Title : Red Rubber Ball
Month : November
Traditional Square : Snow Ball
Focus Color : Red
Yarn Represents : A bouncing ball
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/11/red-rubber-ball-project-quilting.html




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To read more about Project Quilting's Focus Through the Prism, go here.

Nine Ball - Project Quilting

"Nine Ball," 20" x 20", made for Project Quilting, Focus Through the Prism, Challenge 6: Nine Patch, Oct. 2015 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

This is my sixth entry in the Project Quilting "Focus Through the Prism" challenge. To play along you need to purchase a ROYGBIV hand-dyed bundle of fabric from Cherrywood Fabrics and then at the beginning of the month a traditional quilting block is selected. Participants get to chose which of the seven focus fabrics they want to emphasize for the month, but other fabrics can be added.

All quilts will be made 20" x 20" with the intention of displaying them together in the future.

October's block is "Nine Patch."

I wanted my design to be similar to the other quilts I've made for the Focus Through the Prism challenges: "Monkey Tail",  "A Second Self", "Cabin Sweet Cabin", "Positively Pinwheels!" and "Chasing Geese."

You might notice that the general layout for all of the ones I've done for this series are a Nine Patch block with the center block being black. For this challenge it was a matter of deciding whether to make the eight outside blocks all Nine Patches or just some of them. I decided to just do the four corners, so the Nine Patch would be more obvious, and it would give me larger areas for my focal color of green.

All that was left were three decisions to make: what colors to put where within the Nine Patch blocks, what to do with the yarn shape, and what to name it.

I played around with several different color combinations within the four Nine Patch blocks, but nothing really stood out, so I decided to move on to the "What to name it" question. I thought about phrases with the word "Nine" in them and when I thought of the pool game "Nine Ball" I realized that my focal color was green, the same color as the cloth on a pool table.

I did some research to find out what colors the balls are for the game Nine Ball and decided that would be the colors I'd use in my Nine Patches. I did have to make one small change, the 7 ball is usually burgundy and not only did I not want to introduce a new color at this point, I wanted to use all of the colors from the Focus Through the Prism set so I used my artistic license and changed it to the only color not represented, the blue color (I used the indigo for the blue ball).

There are a few places that this quilt deviates from the others in the series. It's the only one that represents something else instead of just being abstract. It's the only one with black outside of the center square and borders, but I didn't want it too far out so they are the squares that touches the center black square. And it's the only one with a significantly lighter color. In order to make the striped 9 ball (in the center of the Nine Patches), instead of using white, because I thought it would stand out too much, I used a lighter yellow. It's subtle.

I pieced four Nine Patch blocks, which was a little tricky because the final blocks were 5" finished size, so the smaller squares are 1.667" which is not a measurement on my ruler. I estimated between the lines and it came out just about right. I pieced the Nine Patch blocks with the green squares then pieced them together around by 5" black center. I fused fabric in similar colors on top of the pieced fabrics and I used the same border fabric and couched a piece of black yarn, this time representing a pool cue and pool ball. Then I quilted black quilting lines that echoed the yarn at 1/4" apart.

I used a knife-edge facing to bind the quilt.

More about Nine Ball and my Focus Through the Prism series

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Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting's Focus Through the Prism, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Nine Patch link up.