3D pin wheel Tutorial

In my last post I showed you the pin wheels that I was going to use in my quilt swap.  Well, a friend on flickr asked me to show her how to make them.  There is a minor problem with me showing her, she lives far away from my house, so I have decided to try to make a tutorial for them.  I am no expert on this, so you will have to bear with me and if you have a problem understanding you will have to make a comment or send me an email and I will try to help.  That sound OK?

Firstly choose the size of your finished block, mine was going to be 4" finished, so I cut 4 x 2.5" squares in background fabric.  I wanted my pin wheels to (sort of) float, so I cut my pin wheel fabric 2" square which would give me my 1/4" seam allowance, and 1/4" of background fabric before the point of the pin wheel.  Trust me it did work. 

pinwheel fabric folded and pressed

Fold your pin wheel fabric into a triangle and finger press.  Place them into a corner of your background fabric.

Now fold again as shown below

Make sure you have all points together.

I tried to pin this all in place and then to sew, but I found that the fabrics moved no matter how carefully I worked.

You can see the pin does distort the fabric

Now I don't usually pin things, so it might be that I am not so good with pins, but I wanted these to be the best I could manage, so I decided to sit and 'tack' them........ goodness I haven't 'tacked' since I was at school.

Nice and flat now, ready to sew

 As I have been so fussy with the pin wheel spokes I thought it best to 'tack' my two halves together.  The corners have a number of layers of fabrics, so I didn't want them to move under the pressure foot of the machine.

Tacked ready for the machine

 I "chain pieced" all the halves together.

 As there are a number of layers of fabric, I have pressed the seams open

Reminder...must recover my ironing block, it looks terrible

 I forgot to take a photo of the next step which was joining two halves together to make a whole.  I didn't tack this bit, just placed seams together and went for it,  Voilà!!

Not bad piecing

 You can see that my pin wheels will float in the middle of the background square.

I love them 

This is where all mine are headed.

Hope this helps Nichol.  Good luck to you all.

Quilt Swaps

I thought I would  show you what has been happening to my Fab Little Quilt Swap.  Remember this is a secret swap, so I have to do a bit of research on my partner.  She has said that she likes Owls, and after looking at her favourites on flickr, I decided to use this range of fabrics.

I looked  on the internet for a design/pattern for an owl and  found this sweet little owl, I chose the threads to match my fabrics and began to start my sewing. It just happened to be a great day, so Pimms was the drink of choice.

 I have a plan for this little quilt, so spent a few hours cutting up some 2" squares in the flora fabric, and 2.5" squares in white.  I did post this photo onto the flickr site (purposely didn't show the white squares) and asked the folks there to guess what they were for, most of them thought they were cut for prairie points......

 but how wrong they are......pinwheels in process

 My owl is finished and I have sewn the 3 rows of 1" squares to it.... looking good so far..

 Back to my (not) prairie points....... yeah! they turned into dear little 3D pinwheels..... I love them hope my partner feels the same.

So this is my plan.... what do you think?  I really love it, but have to remember, its not for me.

Once I get this all together I will then have the problem of how to quilt it, that's the bit where I have jelly legs and never quite know what to do......keep tuned to see what happens next.

Still time to sew.

Hi there,  well I have been a bit preoccupied with some sporting event that has been going on in this   country, and what an event that has been!  Well done U.K.

There is always a bit of time for sewing.  I showed you this in my last post

Cut ready to go

5" squares at long last

 You may remember it took me (and friends) a bit of time to get the maths right, but it came together in the end.

Did I like it with plane borders or......

Should I add these scraps of triangles???

 I decided to go with the scrappy triangles in the border....

Ready to sandwich and quilt now

 As many of you know I am a fan of flickr, and join in swaps.   This week Fab Little Quilt Swap    here sent out our partners for round 2.  This is a secret swap, so I can't tell you who my partner is, but I have started on 'the quilt'.

Just the beginnings

 Today (Sunday) the weather has been kind to us again, so I have spent most of the day in the garden doing what I love.....

Needle, thread, fabric and a glass of Pimm's

 The Sun has finally brought on the flowers.  These Petunia's are climbing Petunia's, and this year we did think that they would n't be climbing anywhere, but at long last they have started to grow and blossom.  Yeah!!!!

Last but not least, I had to make a 12" block for a quilt, so I went with an "I spy" theme.....another first for me.

Hope its O.K.

Well, its now count down to the closing ceremony for the Olympic games so I will love you and leave you.  Hope you all enjoyed the games as much as I did.

Jack of all crafts, master of none

I decided to do a bit of baking on Thursday.  I love this Carrot Cake, it's a recipe that I have used for years, 

Before baking

 Just look at that crust...yummy!!

Ready to eat

 Now most people pile on the cream cheese topping at this point, but not me...... I love it as it is.
Would you believe I have never made a Lemon Drizzle Cake, but the guy on the radio has be gushing about the 'Mary Berry's Lemon Tray Bake', so I thought I would have a go.....

Just caught the top on the oven shelf....shame!!

 this cake is so delicious it will certainly not be the last one I make.


Do you remember when we were in Canada I bought some yarn?  Well here it is almost finished...

 I did notice that they now sell some 'row markers' for knitters, they looked just like the little rings that you get with the 'oral B' tooth brush heads, so saved some money and attacked our toothbrush heads...

Blue and Yellow rings to mark the centre stitch

Indoor photo, so colours are not good...

That is one of my holiday projects finished, so now onto the next.....I think I will start the 'Victorian Sample' that I bought at the same time as the yarn, that will take quite a bit longer to make.

Over the last two weeks we have (at last) had some sunshine and warmer temps. so the flowers are beginning to bloom.

Beautiful Lillies 

Climbing Petunias

A few weeks/months ago I was given a Bella Solids charm pack.  I saw a stunning quilt on line,as did a friend, and she gave me the challenge of making it. I decided it was a quilt I wanted to make so I printed off a picture closed the site, and went off on holiday......... now, I cannot find the site or magazine that I got the picture from (my friend cannot remember where we saw it either) but am still going to try to make it.  I have spent many hours trying to work out the pattern (with a lot of help from my friends) and have cut the fabric and ready to sew.  My problem is I would like to give credit to the designer, so if anyone can help I would be grateful.

Updated
Hey! I do have friends, and one has given me the link I was looking for (obviously I didn't look that hard) It's  here