I've been making a lot of pinwheels! For my sailboat quilt I had to cut 220 white squares and 220 red or blue squares, all of them 2 1/2 inches. With these squares I made half square triangle units, and with these I will make 80 pinwheels, the rest will be "waves" under the boats, this will be the sashing. It's easy, but a lot of work!
I can't use a 1/4 inch foot on my hand crank, which is a Singer Redhead or Red Eye 66. I have my 1/4 inch seam allowance marked, so it is not usually an issue, but the way I am making my HS (short for half square) units, I draw a line from corner to corner, per the pattern directions, then sew a 1/4 inch on each side from the line. This is hard to do with out a 1/4 foot unless you draw line a 1/4 inch on both sides of the line. Well, it seems that the left side of the foot, is a 1/4 inch from the needle to the left side of the foot which gives me a perfect 1/4 inch seam! Yeah!
I just went through and sewed all of my squares (off and on) and then sat down and cut the middle of the squares. Then I would iron them open. Next, I wanted to go ahead and make some pinwheels, so in order to chain stitch them I am sewing the top of the pinwheel and then sewed the bottom of the pinwheel. When I cut my strips, I did it two at a time so I would still have a whole pinwheel, top and bottom, on one string when it was time to sew them together.
Then I iron them open and sew the top and bottom together.
Meanwhile, I have tins to put my WIP in. With so many squares, it can get monotonous, so I've been hopping around, doing the different steps at different times.
The left side are my cut squares before ironing, the right side is after ironing and the finished pinwheels, the bag on top are ones I messed up and I accidently cut a whole row white too short so I need to re-cut that strip and sew those squares together..
These are the ones left that still need to be sewn on one side of the line. Not many!
These are the ones that have been sewn and are waiting to be cut, like I said a lot of work!
Here are the finished pinwheels! The first picture has 11 and this picture has 10, so that makes 21 finished! Only 69 more pinwheels to go and 15 units of waves to go! (I'm trying to be optimistic!)
I have to leave you with a cute picture of Cupcake. I've never seen a cat that moves as much as she does in her sleep!
So far I have tried three different methods for pinwheels, I think I like this one the best.
What is your favorite method for pinwheels?
Missy
"16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
I Thessalonians 4 16-18
6 comments:
It looks like your Red Eye is a side-clamper. If so, you can use any low-shank foot on your machine. There are several 1/4 feet that will fit - check with Cindy Peterson, she can probably tell you which one works the best. Love your fabrics!
You've got a good process going so that you don't tired.
If your 66 is a back clamper, you chan change out the needle bar for a side clamper. It took me less than 10 minutes--and I'd never done it before. If it's a side clamper, there are a lot of 1/4 inch short shank feet you can use. And, yes, Cindy Peterson is a great source--although they are probably available locally at any sewing machine or quilt shop. They just make things easier.
I'm impressed with all your pinwheels. I'm always looking for a "better" method of making half-square triangles!
1/2 sq triangles are the BANE of my quilting existance. After RESEWWING a slew of them this week, (having used a 1/4 in foot too) I've decided to next time make them all 1/4 bigger and cut them down! I'm trimming them anyway. but now I'm doing that twice! ARGH!!!!!
I hate drawing lines on fabric so I use Thangles to make HST units instead. They come in lots of sizes, they save fabric, the printed lines are easy to see even with old-age vision, and the strips used for the HST units can also be used for any solid squares your pattern may call for. At $5.00 a package they're well worth it. If you can't find them where you are let me know and I'll send you some to play with. You can check them out at www.thangles.com.
I love the pinwheel pattern. This is something that I've never attempted. Thanks for coming by and partying with us at Fluster Buster's Creative Muster.
Robin @ Fluster Buster
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