BLOCK OF THE MONTH MARCH 2019

COLOURFUL PINWHEELS

TWO SIZES

       

The Pinwheel is a traditional block and it is timeless.

Joined in rows, these blocks make beautiful joiners/sashing or borders.

Four blocks joined together make a very interesting larger block.

They can make a good quilt design into a great quilt design.

When I'm designing a quilt for an Aussie Hero using the Blocks of the Month our

generous contributors provide, I'm often looking for a small width row of 

"something" to just give the WOW factor.

These small Pinwheel blocks can do that.

The large Pinwheel blocks will be the eye catching part of many of the quilts we make.

TWO SIZES

You can make just the small size or just the large size.

Or 

You can make any number of both sizes.  

Equal numbers of each size are not needed.

You can choose to make just one colour combination

OR 

you can make some of several colour combinations

Colour combinations as above please...

DARK BLUE AND LIGHT BLUE

AUSSIE GREEN AND GOLDEN YELLOW

RED AND DARK BLUE

ROYAL BLUE AND GOLDEN YELLOW

DARK BLUE AND WHITE

BLACK AND WHITE

You can make multiples of the same two fabrics in your chosen colour way

OR

use up smaller pieces of your chosen colour way eg red and blue, using fabrics to make

 just one or two blocks that are the same,  

 that is to say, all the red and blue blocks you make don't have

to be made from the same two fabrics.

The same applies to each colour combination.

PLEASE DO NOT JOIN PINWHEELS INTO ROWS

FABRICS TO USE

100% cotton fabric please - no synthetic blends

Gender neutral please as many of our quilts go to menplain colour

• tone-on-tone of a colour as in the light blue in pinwheel on left above
• prints of another colour on the main colour background as in the grey on white in the pinwheel on the right above
• geometric patterns

SEAM ALLOWANCE

1/4 inch 

Images in the following Tutorial are of the large block

Construction for both the large and small Pinwheel block are the same

LARGE PINWHEEL BLOCK

Cut 2 black squares and 2 white squares 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inch

SMALL PINWHEEL BLOCK

Cut 2 black squares and 2 white squares 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch

Draw a line diagonally from one corner to the other on whichever of the fabrics 

is best for seeing the line.  This is the cutting line and so 

it won't be seen in the finished block.  Use a marking tool that can be seen easily.

Place a white square and black square with right sides together and place pins on 

both sides of the line so they won't need to be moved while sewing.

Sew two rows, each one a quarter inch from the drawn line.

Cut along the drawn line.

Press the seam allowance to one side, taking care NOT to distort the 

square and create a kite shape.

Choose a side to press to eg. the black, and do the same for all four squares.

Layout the block - it's easy to mess up this simple block at this stage ;-)

Join two squares together, by placing them right sides together.

The right hand side of the block shown is pinned ready to sew.

Careful...sew squares together where the two edges are touching as shown on the left hand side.

Press these seam allowances to the same colour as when pressing the previous seams.

This will make it easy to "lock" the seams in the final row of stitching.

Place the two halves of the block with right sides together, lock the seams in the centre

of the seam and stab a pin through the stitching of both sides.  

Don't turn this pin over and pin it down as this will separate the points in the 

centre of the block but place a holding pin either side of the stab pin.

Sew the final seam to make the Pinwheel block.

Press the seam allowance to one side.

And there we have the Pinwheel block

LARGE

SMALL

Please do not trim the blocks as they will ALL be trimmed to make them the right size 

for the quilts they will be designed into.

Do not sew blocks to one another.

Send your finished blocks to 

Sandy Corry

9 Wendouree Court

North Boambee Valley   NSW   2450

PDF Version can be obtained by clicking HERE

Thank you for being a part of this great venture and helping

to make quilts for our deployed Aussie Heroes.

Include your email address and I will advise you when your blocks arrive.

Watch the Blog each Wednesday for the Happy Mail displaying

the Blocks that have arrived in the previous week.

AND

T.H.A.N.K   Y.O.U

for your contributions.

Until next time,

Sandy