Here's my flippy floppy flying pinwheel blocks...


... and this is the story of what I did with them.

Well, I went a bit crazy making lots of red and aqua pinwheels thinking I'd whip them up into a quilt in no time... but when I put them all together it was just a bit too much red and aqua!! They really zoozzed the eyes!!! So I decided to spread them out, but the catch was - what colour? white would've been too obvious, black -too dark, yellow wouldn't work, nor pink or green.. Going through my stash I came across the perfect solution....

Newspaper print!! I used 5 different newspaper fabrics. Three are from Moda's Authentic range. I'd gotten a Yuwa print from Amitie when I was at the Darling Harbour Show and one is a linen that I picked up ages ago as a bargain.

I like the way the pinwheels really bounce off the background.

I made a block with one flapping wing using a little scrappy square of Elvis fabric that had been stuck on my notice board for ages. When it was on my design wall GBF would come in and flap all the blocks saying "Where's Elvis?" until he'd found him.

GBF's other valuable input was in deciding whether to just make a wall quilt. He definitely wanted it to be big enough for the bed so I've made it 80 inches by 84 inches.

When I'd finished the top I started tidying my sewing room, funny how mess really builds up when you're immersed in creating! I opened my cupboard and this fabric fell out! Rather than take as a hint that I may have so much fabric that my storage system is overflowing I took it as a sign that I should include it in the quilt.

I've appliqued a few little birds, butterflies and flowers here and there. It gives the quilt that something extra, a bit of friendliness.

As for the quilting I'm thinking of stitching the pinwheels in the ditch then using perle8 cotton to echo the triangles or rectangles between the blocks. I'm not sure whether to use red or aqua that would stand out or a natural to tone in with the background so the quilting stitches don't compete with the pinwheels. Any suggestions or opinions? Maybe I should open my cupboard and see what falls out.

Cheerio