IPhone Fun and Nine Patches

I got a new toy last week. An Olloclip Macro 3 in 1 lens that attaches to my IPhone. WHAT FUN! This is the center of a dogwood blossom. Cool, huh?

This week I'm making 9 patches - very traditional 9 patches. This is trickier than it looks. I'm making two twin quilts with different patterns but the same fabrics. The nine patch blocks are obviously divisible by 3. The other quilt will have blocks divisible by 4. The easy solution would be to make 12" blocks for both quilts for easy cutting.

But of course I never do things the easy way. I didn't want big 12" blocks. I decided 8" blocks would be good - not too big and not too little. So 8" blocks will mean easy cutting for the pattern which is divisible by 4. But the nine patches? GRRR....

8 divided by 3 equals 3.166666667. How do you cut a strip that size accurately?

I guessed where it would be on my ruler and put a piece of tape on the line. I cut a few strips and sewed a few seams. Then I measured. Nope, not correct. I adjusted the tape, cut some more strips, sewed more seams - VOILA! I ended up with a perfect 8.5" nine patch (8" finished). 

I spent the morning yesterday cutting strips and in the afternoon I started piecing nine patches. ALL the perfect size! YAY!