#27 Pinwheel Fireworks

#27: Pinwheel Fireworks
Finished: 7/8/12
Techniques: Paper-piecing, Mitered borders, Invisible thread, Pinwheel design
Size: 16 1/2 x 16 1/2"

I'm pleased to say I'm back on track with the mini-quilts! This one was finished on time in its entirety.

I wanted to do something in red, white, and blue to commemorate the fourth of July celebration. This is a design modified slightly from Carol Doak's "365 Foundation Quilt Blocks," which I own. In the book, the design for July 4th was too simple. This is actually the design for July 26; a little more intricate, but one that I could enlarge and sketch out easily onto foundation paper. I liked it because the pinwheel design reminded me of fireworks.

Fireworks have been banned in the city for a number of years now, but in years previously, one would always hear the occasional one go off. I am proud and impressed that I heard NO fireworks go off this year! The recent wildfire must have made a big impression on people who would normally ignore the rules.

I had a variety of star fabrics in blue and red and the red striped fabric all seemed appropriate for the design. The white is a tone-on tone leaf design because I didn't have any white with stars. With the stripe, I felt that a mitered border would be better than overlapping borders. I am really pleased with the way the miter came out. I find that mitered borders are pretty easy to do. The paper-piecing was easy too, although I had some trouble when adding the border. The point at the top of the pinwheel is sharp, but, even though I was trying to be careful, the other points were blunted when I added the border. I think it might have happened when I was squaring up the paper-pieced portion before adding the border. I may not have left the proper amount of seam allowance. A quarter inch can be very small at time.

Quilting was done with invisible thread, which I've never enjoyed working with. It seems to me that when one used invisible thread, it always appears that the fabric has holes in it. However, with the thinness of the quilt batting, I was able to use a small enough needle so that the hole effect was minimized.

The red stripe fabric gives the optical illusion of movement if you stare at it too long. How appropriate for this spinning pinwheel fireworks display. I hope you enjoy this.

#16 Fish in the Attic

#16: Fish in the Attic
Finished: 4/19/12
Techniques: Attic Window, Fussy Cut Fabric, Mitered Corners
Size: 14 1/2" x 14 1/2"

Description: An "attic window" is achieved by adding two fabrics to two adjacent sides of a third fabric and joining them with a mitered corner. Typically the two fabrics are a light and dark in order to create a sense of depth, or a "window" effect. I used some peach and orange mottled fabric as my light and dark for the attic window. I also used red mottled fabric for sashing between the windows.

"Fussy cutting" is when you cut fabric in such a way to show off a particular design. As I've mentioned before, I have a lot of fish fabric so it was the logical choice for fussy cutting, even though fish in windows may seem silly. Hence the title of the mini-quilt.

#10 Wanting for Spring

#10: Wanting for Spring
Finished: 3/11/12
Techniques: Pieced background, Raw-edge appliqué, mitered borders, free-motion quilting
Size: 18 x 19 1/4"

Description: I am really ready for spring! If only the weather would cooperate. So I created a cheery little scene to help me through this last part of winter.  I pieced the background with various scraps of yellow. I didn't do any planning for this. I simply started pieced little pieces together and sewed those to bigger pieces, etc, until I had a large enough canvas to work with. Then I appliquéd flowers from a large print fabric on top and stitched them down.

Framing the scene is a wood-grain fabric left over from a bookshelf quilt I made years ago for some friends of mine. I mitered the corners - a new technique for me. In the past, I've always done squared off corners. It wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined and it came out very well, I think. The effect is a wooden picture frame, or perhaps a window frame.

The central scene was quilted on the diagonal, but the frame, or border was quilted with a free-motion technique following the wood-grain of the fabric. I don't particularly enjoy free-motion quilting, but maybe I just need more practice.