SUDOKU CHALLENGE QUILT PATTERN
Sudoku, for those of you who have not tried it, is a challenge in more ways than one. Each of the nine patch blocks you create must have the nine different fabrics in it, but it doesn’t stop there. When you piece the blocks together, the rows that go down, must have each of the design fabrics in it only once, and the same goes for the rows across the finished design also. That is where the skill comes in.
For those of you who like a challenge, try and piece the blocks together, without using our solution that is printed at the bottom of these instructions. For those of you who would just like to create a wonderful quilt, please use the solution as a guide to piecing your nine patch blocks together.
Firstly, you need to take each of your fabrics and give each design fabric a number, from 1 to 9. Next, choose what size squares you wish to work with and cut them to size accordingly. Remember, the size squares you work with, will determine the finished size of your quilt top. Any prints work well with this pattern, especially marbled fabrics or small floral prints. Remember though, the busier the design, the more distracting the quilt will be and the harder it will be to see the beauty of your finished work!
Once you have done that, you can begin piecing your nine patch blocks together. Remember, you can only use each of the design fabrics once. A guide as to how you may piece them together is shown below.
Remember, all of your nine patch blocks must be pieced differently, or you will end up having rows in your quilt with a repeated fabric.
Once you have pieced all of your blocks it is now time to plan out each of their positions in your quilt. Lay out each of your blocks on a large, flat surface (the floor or the bed is good) and, taking each block in turn, position them so that when you look at your quilt, each row across the top, and the side of the quilt, has the nine different squares in it.
As you can see by the above three, nine patch blocks, each block has been pieced together using the same nine designs, but in such a way so that, when stitched together, each of the three rows, contains nine different fabrics.
Repeat this process with the remaining blocks, until you have completed your quilt top, and stitched your blocks together.
If you wish to, you can use the plan shown at the bottom of this guide to help you when piecing your fabrics together. Once completed, you can finish your Sudoku Quilt, by adding a backing fabric, wadding, and quilting the layers.
Sudoku Solution
Not sure which way to piece your fabrics? Use the guide below to help you with your quilt.
Want to make a bigger sudoku quilt? Simply increase the number of different prints you use to create a bigger design.
You can also turn your sudoku quilt into a game. To do this, instead of piecing your squares into nine patch blocks, take each square and back it with a plain fabric, so you will have 81 loose squares. Draw a grid onto a piece of plain fabric that you have backed with wadding and plain fabric and quilt the grid lines. Then, you can use the loose squares to get the family to play sudoku by placing the individual squares onto the grid. See how many different ways you can place the squares to create a different puzzle every time! | 
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