Pinwheel Quilt

You need more color?

The quilt top came together in one weekend in November. It was cold and dark outdoors and I was trying to chase away the blahs indoors. The fabrics are from a Kaffe Fassett Collective charm pack. I was drawn to the bright colors and even though I haven't decorated with them in my house, I know I can find a place to incorporate a striking wall hanging. The block is a 4" finished pinwheel.  Cutting out this quilt went relatively quickly even though I was sitting on the living room floor watching a Hallmark holiday movie and had to keep shooing away curious feline attention.

I made a template from poster board for these trapezoids

The blocks were sewn together on my Bernina 717. This machine is in a cabinet that has a foldout extension.  Laying out unfinished blocks on the extension to the left and setting my ironing board up to the right made piecing blocks a smooth operation. This machine came all the way from Minnesota and I am so glad Lois was willing to share it with me. Thank you.

Finished pieces were pinned to the quilt behind the table and provided eye candy

The machine came to me with only one presser foot, but it is all I needed for this project.  The 717 sews so quietly, with such a precise stitch, and it feels so sturdy that I actually prefer piecing on this machine rather than on my newer 1230. Eventually, I think I will change out the bulb for an LED one, but that's the only change I intend to make. Working with this machine was like sitting down and sewing with a good friend.  Maybe there was less conversation, but we were both comfortably lost in our own thoughts.

Non-LED bulb

Here is the quilt top sans corner pieces

Reminds me of the windmill pinwheels people put in their gardens

A bit more shiny than the quilt, but both make the most of bright colors

About 8 months later, I finally sat down to finish the corners.Yes, 8 months later. I don't have a good reason for why I neglected this project for so long, but I am gearing up for a road trip to St. Louis and wanted to work on some hand quilting in the car.

Lazy corners--cut big and then trim

Quilt set out on the card table ready for basting

Basted with safety pins

The quilting will have concentric circles in the 4" white squares and then (maybe?) the pinwheels outlined. I made templates for my circles and cut them out of cardboard from a box of crackers.

Circles traced on

I have all my quilting supplies packed and am ready to go. Let's see what gets done on the road trip.