This quilt is made with dresden plates which of course inspired the name “Hot Plate.” The plates were fun to make and I am excited to try something else along those lines – but it was a lot of work. Cutting out the pieces is really tedious. I did buy a special ruler for this purpose and it helped quite a bit.

The plate fabric is Kaffe Fasset – I bought it in a jelly roll (which probably didn’t exactly improve the tedious nature of the cutting) and loved the outer pieces…but when I unrolled it and looked at all the fabrics it was terribly disappointing. I didn’t like the fabrics together at all – it just looked like a bunch of junk! I removed the most offending pieces but there are still a few fabrics in there that I look at and think – pardon my French here, but honestly – WTF? I guess I didn’t have to use the fabrics together but my goal was completion and at the time I was just too lazy to rethink it.

I can’t remember what the background fabric is. I’ve seen the honeycomb fabric out and about so it must be from a popular line. The plaid is a homespun that I picked up at the LQS for some other purpose that I’ve managed to forget. The loud KF fabrics begged me for a subdued touch so that is why I mixed it in.

Anyway – I should call this quilt “Hot Plate Mess” because to me the colors and prints are pretty crazy. I do like the overall effect but I think it could have been better with other fabrics. The Husband thinks it looks graphic and bold and he is the artist around here so I guess I will be deferring to his opinion. It is more flattering than my own opinion, so…ya, I think I’ll go with it!

So here’s the current stack:

Whew!

Once again I was inspired to use the pinwheel technique that I learned from a Missouri Star Quilt company youTube video.  I also mixed in a more traditional method (though also a quickie two-fer technique) to make pinwheels that I have known forever so I’m not sure who to credit for it. I thought it would be fun if the pinwheels were varying in size. The entire quilt was made from one Moda ten inch layer cake from the Fresh Squeezed collection and some white muslin.  I loved this fabric collection and it was hard to cut into it but I’m glad to have put it to good use.

At last! I bring to you a tutorial for charity quilt number two: Pinwheels Aplenty! I would like to start out by giving credit where credit is due. I did not make up the technique I used to make the pinwheels. I first saw it in the below youtube video from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. If you are not aware, they have a number of tutorials available on youtube that you can find just by searching for “Missouri Star Quilt Company”.

This quilt is quilted in an all-over meander with white thread and finishes about 36 inches x 42 inches. I can officially call my version a frugal quilt since I spent about $18 for the fat quarters and $1 for the backing. I had the rest of the supplies from previous projects. Ok, I guess I did buy a couple spools of thread. So I spent maybe $25 to make this.

Supplies required:

• 6 Fat quarters – I used Kaffe Fasset fat quarters; unfortunately I don’t know what collection.
• 8 2.5 inch white strips for sashing; I used Moda Basics jelly rolls but you could just cut your own
• 168 inches of 2.25 inch binding, on the straight of grain or bias and folded in half (I prefer bias binding)
• 40 x 46 inch piece of batting
• 40 x 46 inch backing fabric
• A square up ruler that is large enough for a 6.5 inch block
• The usual quilting supplies: rotary cutter, mat, ruler, sewing machine, coordinating thread, etc.

Step 1) Cut 40 6 inch x 6 inch squares from your fat quarters. Also cut 30 2.5 inch x 2.5 inch squares from the fat quarters. Obviously 40 does not divide into 6 fat quarters evenly, so I made sure to cut the most pieces from my favorite quarters.

Step 2) Following the video tutorial, take 2 6×6 inch squares of two different fabrics and place them right sides together. Then sew a 1/4 inch seam all the way around the edge of the square. Using your ruler and rotary cutter, cut across the square in an “X” (two cuts, corner to corner…be careful not to shift the square during the second cut.) This produces 4 triangles. Open the triangles and gently press them towards the darker fabric creating a square. There are now exposed bias edges so you need to be careful not to distort the fabric. Trim the dog ears off of each square and arrange them into a pinwheel. Sew two squares together, then the other set. Press one pair towards the left and the other towards the right. Then when you sew the two sets together to form the entire pinwheel the seams should nestle together. If not then you might have pressed one of them the wrong way; just press in the opposite direction. The last seam can be pressed whichever direction you think creates the least amount of bulk.

Step 3) It is trimming time! Here is the ruler I used to trim mine:

You can find one at Quilt in A Day’s site. There are many sizes to choose from but mine is 9.5 inches. There are also many brands of square up rulers; consult the instructions for yours if it is different.

To trim your block: Lay the ruler over the block. The writing “Quilt in a Day” should be visible and readable (not upside down!) Line the diagonal line up with the diagonal of the block. Like so:

Then look for the 6.5 inch lines on the left and bottom of the ruler. Keeping the diagonal lined up, line the left and bottom edges up with the 6.5 inch line. Cut on the right side of the ruler. (note – these instructions assume you are a righty.) In my picture below you can see that my lines don’t match up totally along the left of the block. If you can’t get it to line up because the edge isn’t straight then err on the conservative side as I did in the pic. Don’t sweat it; we’ll fix it as we move around the block.

Pick up your ruler and rotate your block to the right so that the freshly cut side is closest to you. Place your ruler back on the block, line up the diagonal, line up the left and right edges with the 6.5 inch lines, then cut the right edge with your rotary cutter. Continue this way on the remaining two sides. Good work! A nice square 6.5 inch block.

Step 4) Take one of your white sashing strips and lay it flat. Pin your blocks to one edge of the strip with the right side of the pinwheel facing down. Leave a small margin between each block. It doesn’t have to be exact but about a 1/4 inch is enough. I have 5 blocks pinned to the strip in the picture below. (Sorry, the picture washed out a bit so it is a little hard to see the strip. Especially since the strip is on the bottom. Ya, good planning there, Kel!) Pin all 20 blocks to strips in this manner.

Step 5) Sew a continuous seam on a strip, attaching all of the blocks to the strip. Do this with all of the blocks.

Step 6) Cut the strips at the margins between the blocks. Trim back any excess strip to be in line with the top and bottom of the block. Press the seam towards the sashing. This is the left side of the sashing.

Step 7) Cut your remaining white strips into 6.5 inch x 2.5 inch rectangles. Sew a 2.5 x 2.5 inch square to the end of 20 of the rectangles. Press towards the white strip.

Step Now we’ll make the bottom side of the sashing for each block. Take a block from step 6 and lay it face up with the sashing that is already applied to the left. Now lay a unit from step 7 on it face down and pin as shown. Sew the two pieces together along the bottom. Repeat for the remaining blocks.

Step 9)  Arrange your blocks into five rows of four blocks each.  Sew each row together, alternating the direction of your press for each row.  (So, for row one press the seams to the left; row two press to the right, etc.)  Sew your five rows together.

Step 10) Almost done!  Now sew four 2.5 inch blocks and rectangles together and then sew those together to form the top row of the quilt.  Press towards the rectangles and sew it to the top, matching up the seams.  Then sew another row of 2.5 inch blocks and rectangles to form the right edge of the quilt top.  Attach the right edge and press towards the sashing.  Congratulations!  Your top is complete!

Step 11) Press & starch your backing, then lay it on a flat surface with the right side down.  Smooth your batting over that, then lay your top over the batting.  Center the top (doesn’t have to be exact, a good eye-balling will do) over the batting and smooth out the wrinkles.  Working from the center out, pin baste your quilt sandwich.  I pinned in the center of each pinwheel and also in the center of each of the 2 x 2 inch cornerstones.

Step 12) Quilt as desired, removing pins from the area to be quilted as you go.  I quilted mine in an all-over meander.  However there are lots of options that would be cute here…be creative!  A good place to find machine quilting ideas is Leah Day’s site, the Free Motion Quilting Project.

Step 13) Apply your binding.  I don’t have a tutorial for doing that but there are tons of them out there.

Label your quilt (if desired) and you are done!

Disclaimer: at the time of this posting, I have received no compensation of any sort from the brands, shops, and/or blogs mentioned.  They are referenced in this tutorial because they are the materials and inspirations that I used while making this quilt and I think they are worth checking out.  Enjoy!

The pinwheel quilt - complete!

So I finished it!  Actually I finished it three or four weeks ago.  I’ve been slow in getting pictures posted.  I have the tutorial mostly written up as well but I haven’t found the time yet to finish.  This quilt actually turned out very frugal for me – I spent less than $25 on new supplies and everything else used was left over from other projects.  Woot!  You can’t beat that.  It is Kaffe Fasset fabric and I love the colors.

Here are a few more pics:

We also just got back from the beach.  Here is The Husband and me living it up in the Outer Banks:

The children were there too, of course.  We had a blast…even when The Husband got the camera wet in the ocean.  Oops.  And when I lost the replacement camera.  Double oops.  But all ended well – the card from the first camera survived and we later found the new camera in the sand near a hamburger stand we went to.  Whew!

So…congrats to Erin who won the May Giveaway Day prize!

I reviewed Elizabeth Hartman’s book, “The Practical Guide to Patchwork” in this episode.

Also, don’t forget to check out a new online shop, Dewberry Lane.

Hey, lookit that.  I switched over to Chrome and suddenly stuff works.   Hooray for Google!

Have a listen to the episode by clicking here.  Thanks for stopping by!

I’ve already posted about this quilt some but I wanted to include it in the Blogger’s Quilt Festival going on over at Amy’s Creative Side. 

This quilt was made to be donated to an unnamed charitable cause.  Earlier this year I issued myself a challenge to create 6 [correction: the challenge was for 5 quilts to the guild friend - the sixth was sent to Queensland but was included in the total] charity quilts to be given to a member of my guild who had asked for kid quilts…you can read the whole dramatic story here.  Then the horrible events in Japan started to unfold and I just couldn’t stand around and do nothing.  Quilter’s Newsletter put out a call for quilts that they would send to Japan and I decided as soon as I read the post that I would be making two quilts for my April kid-charity-quilt challenge: one for my guild friend and one to send to Japan.  The one pictured here was sent to Japan, though they both look basically the same.

This quilt is special to me for a variety of reasons.  First and foremost – it reminds me of The Husband.  There is a Rolling Stones song about a woman being like a rainbow and The Husband is a huge fan.  So this quilt gives me warm fuzzies for him.  He tried to lay claim to the quilt but he already has a designated rainbowish quilt, and I had already detached myself from this one.  Second, I designed it and made it so from a little sketch I made.  It is super-gratifying to picture it, map it out, and get a result all out of your own head.  I am really proud to have created it.  And third, it means an enormous amount to me that I did something (other than throw money at the Red Cross or someone else – which is important too but sometimes I think that makes it easy to turn a blind eye) to aid people who are having such troubled times. 

I’ll soon be posting a tutorial [correction: the tutorial is posted here] about how I made this quilt.  It isn’t really a pattern, it is more of an improvisation thing.  Actually that doesn’t seem entirely accurate.  Just think of it as “loosely based” quilting.  Making this quilt was a little difficult for me mentally because while I have no problem winging it when sewing a garment I think of quilting as a more structured process. I also had to be somewhat aloof – knowing that I was giving it away meant I couldn’t get so attached that I would keep it.  It is hard sometimes to be generous but I managed to let go and send it off. 

Thank you for stopping by my little portion fo the Quilt Festival!!!  Make sure you visit as many quilts on the tour as you can.

So.  What to do?  Well, one member of our group, Janice, decided that she was going to challenge herself not to make one quilt a year for Millie’s appeal – she was going to make one quilt a week.  Ho-ly Cow.  There is no way I can run with that pack.  Even though the child’s quilt can be super simple (most of Janice’s – which she delivered a big ‘ol bag of to the meeting – were made up entirely of 5 inch squares) that would take up all of my quilting time in two or three weeks to complete and I’d be behind with the very first quilt.  I should add that Janice has enlisted the help of her nieces and sister and I would not have any of that type of support to spread the work around.  Also Janice is a longarm quilter and can quilt one in about 1/2 an hour.  I’m just not that good.

Last night I woke up at 2 a.m. with a brilliant idea.  Instead of making one a week or even a month, I’ll make a new one every other month.  And I’m going to share them with you, just like I did the Owl Quilt.  I’m going to design a simple childsize quilt, sew it, quilt it, and write it up so that if you want to make a kids’ quilt that is simple and fast but is more than just squares you’ll also have a reference.  Including the Owl quilt that means I’ll create 6 charity quilts and tutorials this year. 

There it is.  My challenge to myself.  That means my next finished quilt and tutorial is due in April.  I already have an idea percolating.  I hope that some of you might find it useful.  Thanks for the challenge, Millie!

What are your goals for 2011?  Here are a handful of mine:

1. Complete the hand-pieced quilt that I designed (top is done!  woot!)
2. Complete charity quilt that I designed (and give away a kit to a listener so they can make their own)
3. Create a free tutorial/pattern from #2 and post it
4. Sandwich and quilt the Sunburst quilt.  Maybe I’ll have it done for the guild show.
5. Sandwich and quilt the Husband’s quilt made from art drawn by The Boy and The Girl.  If you want to make your own artwork quilt, I’ve posted instructions.
6. Piece and complete another quilt of my own design.  This doesn’t have to be hand-pieced but it would be cool if it was.
7. 14 podcasts.  I can’t seem to do much better than that!  Last year the goal was 18 and I think I hit 15.
8. Host another challenge.  I’m thinking it might relate to finishes, but with a twist.

Check out Material Obsession 2 and Fabric Trends!

Have a listen!

PS – I was not compensated in any form for my comments about either MO2 or FT.

Have a listen!

We’re closing in on the end of May Mayhem!  Keep up the great work, everyone!  I’m so blessed to have dedicated quilters virtually beside me during this challenge.

Check out the Virginia Quilt Museum – I get to visit it this summer!

Have a listen to the show.  Thanks for visiting