Hive 7 - July Block Tutorial

 Hi! I'm Jenn Rodriguez. I live in Midway, GA near Savannah. I work for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) as an administrative assistant. My husband is active duty Army and a computer-nut in his free time. We have two boys - A is very into building Lego creations and science (we've read our way through all the library books on the body). T is our singer, dancer, storyteller. We also have two black, German cats who love to chatter.

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting. I grew up with my mom quilting and did bits of sewing here and there. I really got into it after A was born and needed some "me" time. I took a class and was hooked.

How do you organize your fabric stash? My stash is somewhat organized, but messy. Fabric I bought specifically for a project is put in a plastic bag with the name of the project on a post-it, then placed in a bin next to my sewing area. My yardage is folded into bins and organized by color. Scraps are by color in plastic bags. Thankfully we have an extra closet.

 


Who is/are your favorite fabric designers? Right now my favorites are Alison Glass and Angela Walters - total opposites, but I love them both.

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting? Relax - take a break if it's getting frustrating.

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it? Love TQM's binding tool - eliminates the frustration of connecting the binding and double-sided tape - my zippers turn out so good when I use it.

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? Right now I'm really loving BBC's Sherlock. In general I love detective-mystery stories. And Sherlock is just so snarky and funny.


My block is a variation of the traditional pinwheel block. I have a hard time with scrappy, so I'm hoping you all will help me out with this. Use scraps or fat quarters. Pinwheel colors are blue and green. Background fabric is a light solid - white, cream, khaki, light gray, or a low-volume print in this range. You get to choose between a small (6 1/2 inch unfinished) or large (12 1/2 unfinished) block.

In case my tutorial is a bit unclear, I like this general pinwheel tutorial: http://oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/2010/03/pinwheel-quilt-day-2.html and based my tutorial off of it.

Cut:
 2x green rectangles at 2 1/4 x 3 7/8 (3 3/4 x 7 for the large pinwheel)
 2x blue rectangles at 2 1/4 x 3 7/8 (3 3/4 x 7 for the large pinwheel)
 2x background squares at 3 7/8 (7 for the large pinwheel)

Place the green and blue rectangles right-sides together and sew along the long side. Press seam open and trim to 3 7/8 (7 for the large pinwheel)

Draw a diagonal line (corner to corner) on the back of the background square.

Lay colored square right-side together with the background square. Place the diagonal line in the same position on each square, from the top right corner to bottom left corner. This will ensure our pinwheels "spin" in the same direction. Sew a 1/4 inch seam on either side of the line.

Cut on the line you drew creating 2 squares. Press seams open. Trim to 3 1/2 inch squares (6 1/2 inch squares for the large pinwheel).

Layout your pinwheel. There are a couple of layouts.

This is what I'm labeling the typical layout:

If you want to do two blocks, you can get this:

Or if you go a little more scrappy you get this:

Sew into two rows. Press the seams open.

Then sew the two rows together. Press the seams open. Hint on this final seam: I use one pin to align the two middle points and keep it there while I align the rest of the fabric. Before removing this initial pin, I pin on each side of the seam to reduce shifting.