Week 7 - Pinwheels

Elly's block on the left.
Martha's block on the right

To see other interpretations of this block, click right here.

Uses Collection # 2
Block finishes at 6"

Large Pinwheel

Fabric 1 (background)
4.5 x 8.25" (for printing)

Fabric 2 (focus)
4.5 x 8.25" (for layering with the printed fabric)

From p. 78 in collection 2, pick the ink-colour that will work best with your lightest fabric.

Cut a piece of fabric, 4.5 x 8.25" and same size of freezer-paper.
Iron freezer-paper to the front / right side of the fabric.
Print 4 HST that finish at 3"

Layer the printed (background) fabric, and the unprinted (focus) fabric, right sides together.
Stitch on the diagonal, broken lines.
Cut ALL the unbroken lines

Press the seam on all 4 (now) squares to the dark.
Lay out your block, so that you are certain that the pinwheel pattern shows.
Join the HST in pairs.
Press the new seam in the same directions as the previous one (in this case, it will be press to the light).
Join the two pairs.
Twirl the centre, to reduce bulk, and press.

Finished !


Small Pinwheels (directions are for making four that finish at 3" each, and then join them to make a 6" block)

Fabric 1 (background)
5.5 x 10.5

Fabric 2 (focus A)
One 5.5" square (for layering with printed background fabric)

Fabric 3 (focus B)
One 5.5" square (for layering with printed background fabric)

From p. 66 of collection # 2 pick the ink-colour that will work best with your lightest fabric.
Cut a 5.5 x 10.5" piece of (background) fabric and same size of freezer-paper.
Iron freezer-paper to the front / right side of the fabric.
Print 16 HST that finish at 1.5"

Cut the printed background-fabric into two square-ish pieces.
See directions for the large pinwheel and follow them until you have 4 pinwheels that have a 3" finished size.

This block, in the 3" size, is used in the "Pinwheel" quilt in Mimi Dietrich's book "Quilts from the Smithsonian".

If you know of other patterns or books that uses this block in this size, please let me know, and I'll make links to each of the ones I'm aware of. miz_pal (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Barbara Brackman's "Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns" # 1262a