A couple weeks back, I shared a quick placemat finish. I found the scrappy pinwheel blocks tucked (more like shoved) into the back of a shelf at my sewing table.
It did not surprise me to find pin wheel blocks, forgotten in the back of that shelf. There was a time when I was kinda on a pinwheel jag.
I made a lot of them. For a long time. Many of them, I made at shows while demonstrating some of my favorite half-square triangle trimming tools. When you're demoing all day long, you can end up with lot of block parts.
At some point last year, I was rearranging things in my storage space and I 'unearthed' this purple shoebox full of - you guessed it - pinwheel blocks. I do remember making these. Millions of them (okay a slight exaggeration there). I have already used up a bunch, so these are the leftovers from the first quilt!
The purple shoe box is quite fitting, since the making of a purple quilt are inside, including a bunch of pinwheel blocks (about 80 or so), some squares and setting triangles, as well as some yardage for more setting triangles.
I love purple, but rarely make purple quilts. Why is that?
I even took the trouble to 'furl' - also known as 'twist,' 'pop,' 'turn' - the seam allowance to reduce bulk at the center seam intersection on each block.
Aren't these tidy?
Each pinwheel block measures 4-1/2" square.
A couple of the first diagonal rows were already sewn. In the box, I also had a printed copy of a pattern that inspired this project, way back when.
The inspiration comes from this Jo Morton pattern downloadable from Andover Fabrics. Aside from the layout inspiration, I took liberty with color, block size, and block quantity from the original pattern (sorry, Jo!).
As long as I was about the business of changing things, I updated some of my fabric selections preserved in the shoebox with other fabrics from my stash.
Then I started cutting. The horizontal fabric at the top of the photo on the left may end up being my border, but we're a long way off from a final decision on that score.
Since I only work on machine-sewn stuff for about an hour each day in the morning before heading to the computer, this week, I got as far as laying out the pinwheels on my workroom floor, choosing and cutting the setting squares, and making an inventory of the remaining setting triangles to cut.
The big task of making pinwheel blocks is already done. Yay!
I'm changing out one of the purple colors, so I have a tiny bit of reverse-sewing to do as I sew the rows together.
New year, new project? Sure!
More like new year, old project this time. But when the project sits for a while, it feels new-to-me!
And isn't that what counts?
Happy Stitching!
Head Hummingbird
Hummingbird-Highway.com
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