Scientific Pinwheel Quilt Gifted

I'm constantly amazed how quickly small quilts get finished. It took part of one day to sew the borders on and pin baste the quilt, another day to quilt it, and it was bound the next morning. Then it just needed a quick wash and dry to be ready to gift.

I like to wrap these quilts into little sausages and tie them with a pretty bow. The colors are pretty enough for wrapping paper and I get to see their excitement when it's unrolled. How do you wrap quilt gifts?

Scientific Pinwheels baby quilt

Scanning my stash brought this yellow and green stripe to the surface.

Green and yellow binding
on Scientific Pinwheel baby quilt

Red was my original plan for the binding with grey quilting thread but I like this even better, especially since the backing is red with "sun-printed" ferns.

Back and binding of 
Scientific Pinwheel baby quilt

I sewed the binding to the back then pressed it away from the back and again to turn it over the raw edge. That means only the corners need to be pinned although I use a stiletto to keep things straight.

Pressed binding only needs
a few pins in the corners

This baby quilt going to its Forever Home tomorrow. Hooray!

Quilt Details

Size: 41" x 41"

Design: Medallion with hourglass, Chinese coins, and pinwheel blocks

Batting: Hobbs Premium 100% bleached cotton

Thread: red Gutermann cotton thread, 
Quilting: Free motion Baptist fans 

Enjoy the day, Ann

AHIQ #33 - Scale Change

I have not quilted at all this past month. Too busy... but I did write about a family quilt we found at Mother's. We know we are lucky to come from a family of makers. We know that history but we can prove it because she SIGNED HER WORK. Sirena passed away long before any of us were born. There is a faded photograph of her but no evidence my mother met her. If she hadn't signed this quilt no one would know its provenance, its importance to our family history. Take the same care for your family. Sign and date your quilts.

I made a few visits to family to deliver small mementos. Driving in Texas involves hours behind the wheel. In fact, you can tell a Texan because if you ask how far away something is, they answer in hours rather than miles. "Amarillo? Oh, 'bout five hours away."

The scenery may appear desolate to others but I love the undulating plains of north Texas. The photo doesn't do it justice.

View of North Texas plains 
from the Hedley safety rest area

Texas DOT is upgrading the old rest stops with new safety areas combining picnicking, restroom, DOT facilities, and tornado shelters. If a thunderstorm builds while traveling, these are welcome sights indeed.

However, because it's Texas, beware rattlesnakes.

Picnic table at Hedley safety rest area, Texas

The Coca-Cola Building in Dallas has a Foucault pendulum. I enjoyed watching the movement of the pendulum while eating my sandwich last week. If you stay long enough, the pendulum rotates through the circle.

Foucault pendulum,
Coca-Cola Building, Dallas TX

Kaja has all the scoop on Scale Change. Be sure to check out her site and all the links.

Enjoy the day, Ann

InLinkz removed because it was hacked.

Only a Few Pinwheels - AHIQ 32

Over the past two weeks I've made ten of these small pinwheels. Even that tiny amount was difficult both to carve the time out for and to find the creativity to select combinations.

Pinwheel baby quilt it progress

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color, who recently moved halfway across the country, has written several posts about the experience: the excitement of discoveries along the drive, the struggles of house-hunting, the challenges of finding her feet, her supplies and her mojo. She's creating again and contacting nearby quilters. Hooray.

There are parallels with my life. Fortunately we are a large clan so most items have found a home where they will be a memento of happy childhoods without becoming a mausoleum. But we've now reached the paperwork. Oh, my stars and garters. Everything was well arranged but still must be read before deciding to keep or shred. The shredder is very small and overheats regularly. I'd get a new one but... it's helpful to be forced to slow down this process. Surely we will reach the end soon. Then we can donate the shredder.

I haven't read anyone's posts, haven't responded to comments, haven't sew any borders or made any quilting plans. I did take a lunch break and wander through a quilt store but even that didn't inspire me.

QS is coming to help again so I cleared these blocks off the spare bed. Instead of putting them away immediately, I laid them on the floor and snapped this photo.

Pinwheel baby quilt with space for an inner border

I think a quiet inner border might be the solution. The colorful pinwheels might actually work although I'm going to try to make a few more with black and white... and purple and green.

What have you been up to? Reading about your creative decisions will be a blessed hour of tranquility.

Enjoy the day, Ann

InLinkz removed because it was hacked.

Making a Border or Another Quilt

My creative abilities drop off dramatically under stress. After making the center with large triangles all I could think of was small pinwheels and/or Chinese Coins. So I cut squares off the ends of some strips for pinwheels.

Generally the triangles were randomly matched. But sometimes the prints were just too busy. I like the pair on the left much better.

Potential pinwheel blocks

And then the comments came in. What wonderful ideas: scientific and mathematical equations, math symbols, purchasing a bit more of the Scientific Method fabric. How I wish I'd read these before cutting the triangles.

Sewing pinwheels

Sewing them together became slower and slower. As the pile of pinwheels grew, the border became less and less interesting. I laid them out as a single border...

Single pinwheel border on two sides

and as a double border

Double pinwheel border beginning

It looks like I need more whites and a few more black fabrics, too. And perhaps another stopper border.

But I'm still intrigued by Nann's idea of math symbols. So I'll set these aside and make addition and multiplication signs. And what about division and subtraction? Could they blend into a Coin border? Something to ponder.

I need to finish this quilt soon but am finding many paths to follow. Perhaps I'll buy some more fabric and make a small series. After all, these beautiful babies keep coming.

Enjoy the day, Ann

When a Scientist Needs a Baby Quilt

DH came home last week with a request. Another co-worker is expecting a baby boy. Just what I need to work on in the evenings.

While at the Dallas Quilt show I purchased a fat quarter of this amusing print - perfect for a budding scientist.

Here's the center, four hourglass blocks that finish about 19-inches. Working with scale. Finally.

Science baby quilt center

The next border will probably be some Chinese Coins. What else?

Enjoy the day, Ann

Scale Change and an Ohio Star Quilt: AHIQ 30

Reading Kaja's prompt reminded me of a scrap quilt I made years ago. The small shoofly and star squares were from a block exchange. Because we traded two blocks at once, most of the resulting quilts were very similar - an alternate set like the center of mine.

I didn't have many blocks, didn't want to make more but also wanted a queen-size quilt. As everyone knows I've always loved interesting borders. Setting the small blocks in a really large star was my solution. The navy points were too severely dark so I exchanged part of one point for a striking Japanese-style print. {I put the extra dark navy on the back of this quilt so historians would know this was a design choice rather than a lack of fabric. Just amusing myself.} I also wanted to extend the star to its points but, fortunately for me, it became too large. Chopping them off makes a much stronger design.

Shoofly Star quilt set in a large star

It still didn't look right. I recall folding and overlaying various fabrics thinking I'd change more points out when ribbons came to mind. Now this is where I ran out of fabric. There are several different reds. Then gold because a second ribbon of red didn't look right. And somehow I decided to play with transparency where the ribbons passed over darker and lighter sections and crossed each other.

Border of Shoofly Star quilt plays with transparency

This has always been one of my favorite quilts. I gave it to QS for Christmas that year {198? mumble} and sleep under it when visiting. It's a special treat to have quilts scattered across the country. I feel like a grandmother: I get special time with them but don't have to care for them. Audrey made good points about sharing quilts with others in a recent post. Funnily enough, QS didn't quilt back then but this gift inspired her to start. See; I still make my sisters do things. Ha. Tag! You're it, Sis!

Quilt Details

Size: about 90" square (?), fits a queen-size bed

Design: Shoofly and Ohio Star blocks, original border of enlarged Star

Batting: Mountain Mist Blue Ribbon 100% cotton

Thread: cotton, gold metallic, and YLI nylon monofilament

Quilting: Walking foot, free-motion

Enjoy the day, Ann

InLinkz removed because it was hacked.