Pinwheel Block

I have been hanging on to a beautiful collection of fabric since Christmas (when I received it for a gift from my mom) and I have been looking forward to making something with it.  The collection is a "Fat Quarter Bundle", which is great for making quilts, because it contains many different types of coordinating fabrics from the same fabric line.  The fat quarter bundle I have is called "Sand Dunes".  (I also purchased two other fabrics from the same line for the border and backing of the quilt.)  The fabrics are very bright and colorful - great for springtime.

While browsing the tutorials on Sew Mama Sew, I came across a tutorial on making a pinwheel quilt.  I really liked the fun bright look of the quilt, so I decided to start making one.  The first thing was to start with cutting the triangles to form the block.  It is amazing how much time of the quilting process is dedicated to preparing the materials (such as cutting and pressing).  First, I cut two   8 1/4" squares - one white (or beige) square and one square of a medium/dark fabric.  Then, I cut them in half diagonally twice to form 4 triangles in each square.

Next, I picked two light-medium fabrics and cut two different 7 7/8 " squares.  Then, I cut these squares in half diagonally once.  These will be larger triangles than the first set. 

Then, I arranged all the triangles to form a pinwheel:

Using a 1/4" seam allowance, I started by sewing the smallest triangles together (white to blue).  Then, I sewed those to the larger triangles.  I ended up with 4 little squares that look like this:

Then, I took those 4 squares and sewed them together to form this pinwheel block:

At the end, I should have 12 of these blocks (3 x 4) with borders and sashing in between each block.  Each block will vary with different combinations of fabric.



Quilting for Christmas

After I finished my first "Sampler" quilt, I wanted to make a quilt for my parents to give to them at Christmas.  However, I only had about a week to complete it in time.  I worked furiously up until Christmas Eve, and I was even finishing up hand-sewing the binding just hours before we exchanged gifts.  I have since learned that I do not wish to complete a quilt this quickly again!  Quilts are more fun when you can work on them little by little without any pressure.

I used two charm packs made by Moda Fabrics in this quilt.  They are very easy to use and can help speed up a project.  They are pre-cut into 5" squares and come from similar fabric lines so they coordinate well together.  I also chose to use an inexpensive flat sheet for the backing of the quilt.

Sampler Quilt

Over the past few months, I have been getting more familiar with the sewing process.  One of the first things I wanted to learn how to make was a quilt.  Since I didn't really have any sewing experience, I decided I would take a quilting class to learn the basics.  On the first meeting, I realized that this was a class for way more than just the basics.  I was overwhelmed.  But, I stuck with it, and was soon on my way to creating my first quilt.

The quilt layout we used consisted of many different block patterns.  The instructor referred to it as a "sampler quilt".  She said that any of the individual blocks could be used to make an entire quilt, so we could get some good ideas to use in the future.  Each block became increasingly more difficult.  By the end, I was spending several hours on one block.  One of the things I learned most about sewing/quilting from the class is that the preparation process (measuring, cutting, pinning, etc.) takes up the majority of the time you spend on the project.  I easily spend over 3/4 of the time preparing quilt blocks for sewing.

Throughout the quilting process there was a lot of trial and error, but I feel pretty satisfied with my first quilt.