What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Back in June, I was asked to participate in showing a demo at our guild area on rulers. We had four members showing different rulers. Members divided into groups, and shifted tables every 15 minutes. It was a fun program for the members. My demo was on the 60º ruler, which makes a hexagonal table topper. After the demo, I finished sewing the topper, then was wondering what I could do with it. I didn’t need another table topper, and these have not sold well at the shop or Fiber Fair. I thought it was a reader on a ...

 Welcome back for block 9, Shooting Star.

attributed to Old Chelsea Station (a mail order company 

started in 1933, Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia).

I renamed it Shooting Star.

As much as I like pinwheels, 

the new name felt more in line

with the theme of this quilt along.

There were so many stars along the way

who contributed to the birth of our nation 

and the continual upkeep of our values.

I know somedays it feels like a struggle to 

still believe, but we must, just as they did ...

Download this free quilt pattern with pinwheels, gather your fabrics, and make this easy quilt very quickly.

Spring Twirl – click here to download the pattern

We are having warm weather here in Georgia, and I forgot for a moment that it is still Winter. Before we know it, Spring will be here! Get ready for its beauty by sewing the Spring Twirl, a quilt I designed for Blank Quilting’s Nature’s Symphony collection. The quilt measures 61½” x 75″ (1.60m x 1.90m) and the blocks finish at 12″. The fabrics are already available in quilt stores. Yeah ...

MARCH 18

So does everyone have that one big project that just seems to go on and on with no real end in sight?  My English paper pieced pinwheels is that project.  It's been going on for ...oh I don't know... 13 years now??  I know I started it in a weak moment.  I had finished the 4,200-piece tumbling blocks quilt and thought "Gee I haven't EPP in a while".  What happened if I did an improv EPP using just one shape but played with value.  At that point I never saw an art quilt improvisationally English paper ...

 A few more pinwheels on the design wall.  Of course, I will not put them all up there since I need like 140+ of them.  Still many more to go.  

Lots of quilting in the works!  I pieced a few more pinwheels for one of the customer quilts.  He wants it by Christmas so I'm just piecing a few here and there until I get a few of these other quilt orders done.  I'm also using the pieces for leaders and enders.  

What a month!  You would think I was trying to make up for the last two months, or something.  

I got all my blue Pinwheel, Sawtooth Star, and "brick" blocks made for the RSC-2022 scrap challenge. 

Then, I focused on the quilts I had started for my daughter-in-law's friend's twin grand babies.  I wanted them to be similar but not identical, so I made Pinwheel blocks for one and Broken Dishes blocks for the other.  

Huh.  The Broken Dishes blocks made a secondary pattern that looks like - guess what?  Pinwheels!  

Make this Summer quilt with stars and pinwheels using your favorite quilting fabrics. An easy quilt pattern perfect as summer decoration!

Photo by American Quilter magazine. Used with permission.

I came across Moda Fabric’s Rainbow Garden collection and was struck by the brightness of the prints and the whimsical garden motifs. So, I set out to design a quilt that would showcase those fabrics I loved so much. Yes, fabrics are often the source of inspiration for my designs.

“Summer Groove” measures 73″ x 87-1/2″ with blocks that finish at 6″, 10″, and 12″. I wanted to include ...

 This is a simple, scrappy quilt that I designed with different sizes of pinwheels.

Pinwheel Explosion (84" x 84")

The pinwheels finished at 12", 6", and 4". It could be made with 8", 4", and 2", if you prefer [or other sizes, if you want to do the math

As I was looking back at my Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilts (see previous post), I thought it would be interesting to remind myself of the other BH patterns I have made. I have included  Bonnie's name for the pattern and my name for individual quilts [in brackets], if they differed. The year indicated was the year that I completed the project.

Carolina Chain (2015)

Patches and Pinwheels (2015)

Bricks and Stepping Stones [AKA Autumn Path] (2015)

These were three of my first efforts. I was afraid of the small pieces, so I made the units a bit bigger than ...

So I started to do my twenty min sew sprints on my pinwheel quilt this week.  I have a goal to finish it by next September so I can enter into the fair.   They have a category for all by hand made quilts.  Nothing like a deadline to get things done.   I've decided to do them in bunches and then visually lay out the bunches making the bigger and bigger.   If I need some transitional wheels I can make them up.

It's slow progress but at least its progress.

So What Have You Been Up To Creatively?

Summer is just around the corner and that means it’s time now to start stitching up those beautiful, patriotic quilts for your summer picnics and Independence Day celebrations! Quilting has been an American past-time since the beginning days of our country, so celebrate the history of our craft and nation this year with a red, white and blue color palette!

If you’re needing some inspiration, we’ve gather five of our favorite patriotic quilt projects that would be just perfect ...

Good day everyone. I wanted to post a very short, quick tutorial for anyone who is currently stitching pinwheels or wants to stitch pinwheels.

For the quilt I’m sewing, I needed to end up with a finished pinwheel, measuring 8.5″x8.5″. In order to accomplish that size of a block, I cut two squares each 7″.

Step #1 – With right sides together, stitch around the perimeter of the fabric unit, 1/4″ from the outside edge.

Press. This is a very important step. It ensures that when the fabric unit is cut, the half square triangles all ...