I’ve been getting in as much sewing possible before good weather hits here in Michigan, so I’ve really been putting in the hours on my machine.  Soon there will be lots of yard work and other outdoor activities.  I have so many quilt designs drawn out in my notebook that I want to make – there’s just not enough hours in a day.   I’ve wanted to do this pinwheel quilt for a while and knew I was going to make pinwheels popping out on a white background.  I wasn’t sure about the color scheme at first, but it evolved to become a very colorful quilt!  Stay tuned because I am writing a full pattern for this quilt and hope to have it ready soon.   There’s so many color possibilities for this quilt – I would love to make a navy and white one, too.

This quilt was made of mostly of Kona solids – White, Orange, Pear, Baby Pink and Bright Pink.  The dotted pinwheels on the front is a fabric I really love – it’s called “Sunkissed” by Michele D’Amore for Benartex Fabrics.  So fun!  I used it as the backing fabric, also. Unfortunately, this is a hard to find fabric now.  I’ve been hoarding it for a while.

I pondered how to quilt this and in the end I ended up doing modern diagonal lines, going in just one direction.  It was tempting to quilt it both ways, but I restrained myself!  Because I followed the pinwheels and went right down the diagonal corner of the squares,  I did not need to mark my quilting lines in any way.   I used a 4.0 inch stitch length on my machine.   The batting was Warm & White from the Warm Company.

The binding is a fabric I’ve had in my stash for a while, just waiting for the perfect quilt and this was it!  It’s a pink stripe from the Hi De Ho Collection from Moda.  I made 2.5″ binding and did my usual machine binding method.

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This quilt finished at 40″ x 47″.  It’s a great size for a child to snuggle with or as a great design accent for a room.

I’m listing this quilt in the shop.

Thanks for dropping in – I hope you’re making something!

Elaine

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I love this quilt.  I so enjoyed making this quilt and watching it come together.  I love high contrast fabrics so much and putting them together with white solid fabric is so eye catching.  After I finished the Zuzu quilt, I really wanted to do something similar, only with squares.  I knew I wanted patchwork, but I didn’t want the whole quilt to be patterned fabrics, so I broke it up with blocks of white and I think the design is bold because of it.

I have lots of gorgeous blue fabrics from a block of the month club I joined and decided I did not like.  I didn’t like the blocks, but I loved the fabrics – gorgeous Cotton & Steel, Robert Kaufman, Art Gallery, Carolyn Friedlander, etc.  These were so fun to sort through and select for the quilt.

 

For the construction of this quilt, I made nine-patch blocks by cutting 3″ strips of fabrics from the width of fabric and then cutting those down to 3″ x 10″ strips.  I sewed three strips together, randomly, and then subcut these into 3 strip sets.  Then after I had sewed multiple strip sets, I sewed these randomly together to get nine-patch blocks.  I pressed all the seams one way on all my strip sets, so I could nest the seams together when I did the nine-patch blocks.  Make sure all the seams are pressed the same way on your finished blocks so that you can alternate seams on your rows and nest them together.

 

After your blocks are sewn, trim them to 8″ square.

 

 

After I had all my nine-patch blocks finished, I cut  8″ squares of solid white.  Then I laid out the quilt randomly, alternating nine-patch blocks and white blocks.  I made 46 nine-patch blocks and cut 17 squares of solid white.

I was going to do a scrappy binding, but then decided to use a tiny navy blue and white dress stripe from Dear Stella that I thought went nicely with the quilt.  I did my usual machine binding for extra durability.

I stitched in the ditch for the quilting, because I felt I didn’t want the quilting to interfere with the beautiful patterns in all the fabrics.

I also used TWO layers of Warm and Natural Warm and White cotton batting again. This makes the quilt extra heavy and extra warm and it has become my favorite way to make a quilt now.  I just love the extra heft and weight that it gives a quilt.  I actually gently prewash my batting because I don’t want it to shrink much when it’s in the quilt and laundered in the future.  Warm and Natural batting actually holds up well in a gently prewash, but other battings I’ve used do not.  I think that shows how well the batting will hold up once it’s in the quilt and going to be washed for years to come.

The backing fabric is an absolute favorite of mine – 108″ wide quiltback “Language of Colors” by Windham Fabrics.  I  just love this fabric and the punch it adds to a quilt, without competing with the front of the quilt.

The finished quilt is 52″ x 67″, a great size to snuggle up with.

This quilt is for sale and I’m listing this in the Shop.

Have a wonderful week!
Elaine

 

 

 

 

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