A Lesson in Pinwheels

As I type this Moses is in Oregon at the Spring Quilt Market, so, to distract me from my extreme jealousy I've decided to finally sit down and write up my overdue post about my lesson in pinwheels. What did I learn? Slow down and concentrate!

Here was my first attempt.

That just wasn't going to work for me. That looks like a pinwheel that's about to fall apart with the first gust of wind.

So, I did some googling and found this post that helped me out. Here's my attempt number three I think it was.

Much better, and as good as it's going to get for me. :)

Some important steps from that tutorial that really helped me ~

#6. I've learned just recently that if a pattern says to press in a particular direction, just do it. There may be a reason for it.

#13. Don't turn your piece! Rotate your mat or move your body when squaring up. I think that was part of my troubles in my first attempt.

#16 & 19. Really push those seams against each other with your fingers. You'll be able to feel this when you try it.

Something else I've discovered about my sewing style is that I tend to sew a hair over the 1/4" allowance on my seams. This leads me to have smaller pieces than what's called for. I get to the step where I need to square up say my 5" square and I'm measuring it at just 4.75". To fix this I just start off bigger! That scant little bit that the tutorial shows you need to trim? Well, here's how much I trim down.

Now, "what are you making anyway" you ask? A teddy quilt for my daughter! I saw her one day using Levi's blankie to wrap up her teddy. Now, this is the teddy she sleeps with every night, wrapped in the blankie Levi sleeps with every night. You can guess this wasn't going to end well at bed time right? I owe her one anyway since I made Gabriel a sleeping bag for his teddy a while back.

Here's the finished top. I used some Pirouette fabrics and a Northcott solid in a tan shade.

And why the tan? I wanted practical. I knew that if she actually used this, it was going to be drug around, stomped on and used as a napkin, so I didn't want to go too light for the solid. 

From the looks of it, teddy is happy.

And I think it makes a great double as a picnic blanket...

Since taking these pictures I have finished it. I used a single layer of flannel for the back, stitched right sides together then turned inside out and topstitched to close it up. There's no batting since I wanted it thin so it would wrap easier. I didn't quilt or otherwise attach the two pieces together throughout. It's a small piece and the flannel grabs on to the top enough that I don't need to do anything else to hold it together.

It's been completed for about a week and I'm happy to say she does wrap her teddy in it every night. I told her she could wrap it with the flannel side out to make it more cuddly for her. She said no because sometimes she drops her teddy on the floor at night and she didn't want it to get cold. Sweet dreams teddy...