Saturday, March 28, 2015

Windmill in the Mail

Windmill is quilted, bound, washed and in the mail. What a fun and easy process from Sujata Shah's book. She's started a blog for Cultural Fusion Quilts where you'll find many more made by herself and others.

This quilt began with leftover fabric I used to make some centers on Propellers and Planes. I'd set them to the side while deciding whether or not to keep them. But as I was sorting my stash, more fabrics appeared that just went with these wild things.

Strongly patterned fabrics are cut free-form into windmill blade shapes to make the block.
Windmill quilt

I don't know what came over me: the fabric seemed to magically fall into place and the top was done in a day.

I wrote about the quilting at the bottom of this post. Several quilters posted photos with something similar. They were so lovely but didn't include instructions so I made up my own method. Here's a close up of the tightest section of the curve quilting.

Top left corner of Windmill shows
the curve quilting with the smallest radius.

In the opposite corner, the radii are the largest.

Bottom right corner of Windmill
where the curve has the largest radius.

Another idea that struck me from other quilters is using leftovers for binding. Here's mine. I really like the black/white/red diamond print both as binding and in the blocks (see the second photo.)

The double fold binding is made from any
fabric in the quilt that was leftover again.
Cut 2.25" wide by whatever length was available.

Enjoy the day, Ann

8 comments:

Quiltdivajulie said...

This is the BEST kind of quilt . . . great process, great fabrics, and using up leftovers too good to throw away. LOVE it!

Ann said...

Thanks Julie! They were too good to throw out or to allow to languish in the stash.
I am starting to suspect that most of our stash would go together. We are each drawn to certain fabrics. Even when they don't look similar, they have been curated by our eye.

Mystic Quilter said...

Scrap quilts are the best in my book and we certainly seem to have a lot to use up. This is lovely Ann.

Ann said...

I couldn't agree more, Maureen, with both statements. Scrap quilts have such movement and interest. And yes, mine are replicating every night.

audrey said...

Wow! Love how this quilt has so much movement and energy! Your fabrics are wonderful and I love that scrappy binding. What a great quilt!

Kaja said...

That was quick, Ann! I l always love how your scrappy quilts look this one is just great.

Ann said...

Thanks, Audrey. I'm surprised how well it turned out. I put the fabrics together but had no real idea what the result would be.

Ann said...

Thanks, Kaja. It was fast, wasn't it. I'm not a big fan of quick quilts but this turned out great. And I have several more gift quilts I need to get done this year. So many friends and family with life events. :-)