Pixies and Pinwheels

Pixies and Pinwheels


Last spring, I wanted to learn how to make pinwheels so I took a class at the local community college. The teacher has had many years of experience and made the process very understandable.

The process used is to create half-square triangles. I learned that a pinwheel block is simply made up of four half-square triangles sewn together. These blocks below are examples of the half-square triangles. I have put one right on top of the other. If you were to sew these together to begin the process of building a pinwheel block, you would simply flip the top down and sew the two together at the top.

Before sewing the two blocks together, make sure that the seams of the green pin wheel are sandwiched. 

In every step of the pinwheel creation, it is important to ensure that your seams are "sandwiched" at every step so that you "keep your points." In order to do the "sandwiching" of your seams you must press your seams in the same direction. In this example, the seams are pressed toward the dark green.

As you can see from the block above, two sewn half-triangle blocks have been sewn together and I am pointing to the "sandwiching" the the other two sewn half-triangle blocks on the bottom which have been sewn together.  

I prefer to gently pull the seams apart prior to pressing. Once I begin to press the seams all in the same direction as dictated by the seams of the half-square triangle blocks, the center begins to create a "mini-pinwheel." It is important to press this point to create this "mini-pinwheel" so that the seam lies as flat as possible. 

In this closeup shot, I am attempting to illustrate the alignment of the pinwheel points which was achieved by sandwiching the seams together and maintaining a quarter-inch seam.

 Pinwheels are fun to work with because you can intersperse them throughout your quilt, align them to create a variety of designs.

When I selected this fabric, I knew who I was making the quilt for so I wanted it to be bright and filled with color--pinks specifically. While it is difficult to see in the pictures, the blue coordinates with blues used in the rose floral print for highlights in the roses, leaves, and stems.  After playing with the fabrics, I decided to go ahead and use the blue for pinwheels. I knew I wanted to make the pinwheels but I didn't know how I was going to add the pixie fabric that I wanted to use. After trying a number of layouts I decided to arrange the pinwheels in a straight line and to incorporate the pixies along the side borders.

I chose to machine quilt this quilt, stippling the floral print fabric, outlining the flowers and pixies in the pixie blocks. I backed the quilt with a fluffy cotton backing and it turned out beautifully. When presented to my great niece, she loved it. A few months later I gave her a pixie chapter book which seemed to give her good reason to cuddle up in her blanket and read.