A Pinwheel in May

In college I took, “Professional Clothing Construction” from Dr. Oaks.  She was/is the most perfectly put together 75-year-old I have ever met.  She wore the same clothes you would imagine the queen mother wearing (all sewn by herself).  Her hair was snow white and perfectly quaffed.  Her teeth were stained from the tea she sipped while she lectured. 

She graded in “Amazing”, “Lovely”, “Nice”, and “Fine” instead of letter grades (even though they still meant the same thing).  She taught me many things “Your sewing should be like the ideal woman, as lovely on the inside as on the outside.”   “Pinning is for perfectionists and for those who wish to refrain from cursing.”  “If you never want to look at it again, it probably means you’re done.”

I mention Dr. Oaks and her lessons because 1. While making this square I did not use one pin (generally I am a pinning fool, but could not locate my pin cushion) and I swore… a lot 2. I am not sure this square is like the ideal woman, maybe just like most women (nice) 3.  I never want to see it again, so I am probably done; even if it is a day late.

I am not sure why I struggled so much with this square.  Most of my problems came from the white fabric.  Next time I will do my research and read all the comments before butchering my fabric.  A few good things came of this experience.   The seam ripper and I (me?) are now affectionate friends and I bought my first yard of Kona white (gasp, I know).

To Amy Love, Jen

Dear Amy,

My square has been completed for some time now.

April 10th to be exact.

I was frustrated that it did not line up.

I added fabric, and I honestly CANNOT figure out where I went wrong.

It also seems too orange.

I was going to sew a new square, but the time to do so never presented itself.

Now that April is over, I have more time.

If you would like me to do a re-make, I will HAPPILY try again.

If it is too orange, I will absolutely understand.

Be honest with me.

I like honest.

Love,

Jen

PS Sorry for the shady picture.

amy's pinwheel- and a look inside my chaotic brain

What is the real difference between aqua and turquoise?? I googled it, but it didn't help. I spent some quality time auditioning my stash last week for the obvious choice. No dice.

I feel confident in my stash, for the most part. But, when you throw out aqua vs. turquoise, I panic.

So here it is. My version of aqua (and 5 other colors which were far less complicated for me)...I hope it's what you were wanting, Amy...

I really enjoyed this block, it actually inspires me to do a sampler quilt like Becca.

Made with love!

p.s. I'm going to start hand quilting my selvedge quilt tonight!!! Super excited!

finally!

This quilt for my niece, Abigail, was inspired by Teriney's squares last year.  I loved that design!  Since I haven't met Abigail yet, this will have to do for now.  fyi: the fabric (except the solids, which are Kona) are from the It's a Hoot! line by Momo.  

tutorial 

I had my friend, Eddie, do the actual quilting and he did a gorgeous job, as usual!

Now... what to make for my other niece, Mardie!? 

Bring in the Scrap, Bring in the Funk!

Hope these are scrappy and funky enough for you, Amy!

 What a fun design!  I can't wait to make one for myself.

to Amy, with love

I had an imaginary play date this week.  

I broke out my sewing machine and wished I could be having another sewing date with my dear friend, Amy.  The kind where we would whip up four skirts in a morning while our littlest ones played, before she moved last year! sigh...

I miss my sweet friend! So I whipped her up this instead!

I hope you like it! Love ya, girl!

Amy's pinwheel

I'm not a big fan of these pictures as I think they mess with the colors a bit by neonizing them or something.  That being said, I just felt like, "Overcast morning be darned I want to document and post this guy!"

This was a fun square to do Amy!  I really hope you like it! 

I've already fallen all over myself with thanks to Amy for switching...but one last time for good measure, thank you Amy for swapping months with me!  It meant a lot.

Enjoy!

A few exit notes:

1.  Despite the wrinkles in the picture, it actually does easily lay flat when you take the time (two seconds) to smooth it out.


2.  Each of my squares are turning into a Where's Waldo of layout flaws that once I see I can't unsee and that I am also fairly unable to change.  This flaw was noted after all of the sewn strip pieces were cut. Again, I won't burden you with it, but I think you'll see it in no time.  Wah.

My Pinwheel for Amy

Amy, this ended up being a lot of fun! I had a hard time with the white... "which way to lay it out to cut it and then worried about the hang over of the colored pieces". But it worked out, I think. I made one for me too. I may make more. It was fun! Hope you like it. 

For Kristin

I'm sorry it's late. I hope you like it.

I will refrain from pointing out a layout flaw that now is so glaring to me that I can't look at the square without seeing it. I don't want to put that burden on you. I would have unpicked and redone, but I have found with quilting that where layout is concerned if you "fix" one thing you often mess up another thing. Or two.

It'll be winging its way to you soon!

pinwheel for Amy

here's my pinwheel for Amy.  I don't know why my outer edges didn't line up.  maybe my seams are off.  I tried really hard to get 1/4" seams.  After sewing the 7 strips together, the rectangle measured 7.5" tall, so I had to cut my Kona at 7.5" x 8".  I hope you like it Amy, and I hope you can use it!  I can redo it if you figure out what I did wrong.

scrappy funky pinwheel #2

Here it is:

Love, Camie

only 5 months late

The idea of making quilts for my eight nieces and nephews for their birthdays last year sounded great at the time.  I am way behind and haven't gotten very far on my two 12squared quilts.

This is for Gabe, who is 6.  He loves Star Wars, but I wanted something less specific in theme.  It is based on a stained glass window I saw once and a Garnet Hill quilt (discontinued).  I am tickled that I got to give it to him in person and that he loved it.  I have one more to make for my 2mo niece, Abigail.

Thank goodness for rotary circle cutters!

(the background is navy, not black... terrible photo)

All of my nieces and nephews live about 1500 miles away, so I hope that when they snuggle up under their quilt from Aunt Emily, they know I love them.

scrappy funky pinwheel #1

Or maybe I should say scrappy funky pinwheel #2.  What I mean is I messed up on #1- I cut the diagonal on my striped block with the block right-side down instead of up.  I didn't realize that was such a dumb thing to do until I went to assemble the pinwheel.  I was a block head.  I will go ahead and call this block #1 because I plan to make another.  It was really fun to make and I love the color combo.  I hope you like it! -camie

Scrappy Funky Pinwheel

Robyn asked if I could swap months with her. So LUCKY me I get to go a month early!

Here's my colors. Aqua (not turquoise), gold/mustard, orange, avocado green (not lime), dark red (vs. bright fire engine red), and black (not in picture). I know that sounds picky, but anything in that color range is fine.

**I will send the Kona White tomorrow*

Cut strips 1.5 X 7 you will need 14

Sew them together and iron. make 2 of these.

cut on a diagonal: line up your ruler (or whatever you call this thing) 3 inches on top, 4 inches on bottom. (if it works better to mark it with a pencil and line them up go for it.

cut Kona White 7 X 8 you will need 2 (the picture shows 7x7 that didn't work. ignore it)

Cut on a diagonal: 3.5 on the top 4.5 on the bottom

swap your pieces around and line up your diagonals.

sew the diagonal

iron. repeat with the other 3.

Move them round to form a pinwheel. Note: Be sure you have the stripes that were cut from the same square opposite from each other. Does that make sense?

Sew the top 2 squares, the bottom 2, then put the 2 halves together. Line up the middle point, not the sides.

You will notice that my final edges are off a bit. I'm not sure what happened. Yours might be that way also. DO NOT TRIM THEM OR SQUARE IT OFF. send it as is. I will match them all up and trim them once I get them all.

Thank you GIRLS! I'm very excited.