Ninepatch Construction

If you wanted a hundred and fifty 3 inch nine patches in 75 colors, how would you make them?

I chose my colors from the 1 and a half inch strip bin.

Then I sewed sets by color. I call these the A-B-A units.

And these the B-A-B units. Since I want all my ninepatch blocks to be 'X's and not 'O's I need twice the amount of A-B-A length as I do B-A-B.

I press to the dark fabric on both units. Then I layer them right side up, a little staggered to distribute the bulk of the seam allowances and rotary cut apart at 1 and a half inches. This picture shows enough A-B-A strips for twelve ninepatches.

I layer and cut the B-A-B strips the same way. Then pair the mates right sides together and lay the third piece atop and stack them on the board I carry from my work table to my sewing machine.

Here I have 26 green ninepatches paired and ready to sew. Because I pressed to the dark on both strips, the seam allowances nestle together really nicely. I don't even have to pin. When I sew I take the cross piece off and set it right side down, pick up the paired strips, sew and repeat.

Once I run all pairs through the machine, I turn the pile of remaining units over, begin at the front of the string of blocks and add the last row, chaining as I go.

Here are 110/150 I need. There are lots of different ways to make ninepatches, but I really like working with one color family at a time. It's so pleasing to see the shades of green, blue, purple, brown, orange and red.