Pinwheels!

Picnic and Fairgrounds by Denyse Schmidt

The rotary cutter and sewing machine have had a tough few days!  My fabric bundle Picnic and Fairgrounds by Denyse Schmidt was transformed into pinwheel blocks too numerous to stack neatly without collapsing (not for lack of trying though).

I totally underestimated how much work it was going to be to make enough pinwheel blocks for a relatively large quilt, and for a while there this quilt looked like it might be another baby quilt.  However I persevered.  88 pinwheel blocks.  350+ half square triangles, all neat and trimmed.

Right from the start the plan was to sew the pinwheels together by adding a strip of sashing fabric between each of the blocks, the only difficulty was choosing a fabric to suit the mix of colors/patterns.

I was keen to break away from a solid white sashing  and instead wanted to use a red polka dot printed on a white background, but I was just a little concerned how it would interact with the pinwheel blocks. 

Trust me, many other potential sashing fabrics were auditioned to convince me to go ahead with my initial choice, and I am glad I did. (The red polka dot print is from the Delilah collection by Tanya Whelan - it also turned out to be a good choice as dots were printed on grain which certainly makes cutting  and sewing with such narrow strips a whole lot easier).

Next up?  Preparing the quilt back.

Thank you for stopping by,
Rita