Extra Scrappy Pinwheels - Tutorial & Video

Pin It




Two color quilts make my heart go pitty-pat. Two color quilts with dozens of different prints in them my my heart pitty-pat even faster.

I've made them before -- the brown Double Irish Chain, the blue and white Irish Chain with the sawtooth stars (maybe I need to add Irish Chain quilts to the list of things that make my heart skip a beat!), and a bunch of smaller scrappy two color quilts.

When I first started planning my Extra Scrappy Pinwheels, I thought it would be one of my everything-that's-dark-enough-to-contrast-with-the-muslin-background scrap quilts. I don't remember actually changing my mind, but there were some bags of red scraps from a craigslist find, and I started cutting and quilting took its course...

For each pinwheel block, you will need four 2 1/2" squares, eight 2" finished half square triangles, and four 4" finished half square triangles. (That would be 2 7/8" and 4 7/8" half square triangles if you're not using the AccuQuilt Dies.)



Sew two of the small print triangles to a square to form a larger triangle. Then add a white triangle to form a square. Once the squares are done, you're just making regular pinwheels -- easy!



Fabric Requirements for a 40" square pinwheel quilt:
3/4 yard red scraps
1 1/2 yards white background fabric
1/3 yard binding fabric

Cutting Instructions:
36 white 4" finished half square triangles (4 7/8")
64 white 2" finished half square triangles (2 7/8")
36 red 2 1/2" squares
136 red 2" finished half square triangles (2 7/8")

To duplicate my quilt, make nine pinwheel blocks and assemble them using 2 1/2" sashing between the blocks. Add a 2 1/2" white border around the center section, then a pieced triangle border (each side is made up of sixteen half square triangle units, with 2 1/2" squares at the corners), then another 2 1/2" white border.

If that sounds like a scary lot of little triangles, it's really not. You can cut more red triangles than you'll need for the blocks and border with two passes through the Go! Cutter. And one more pass for the white ones. And with those pre-trimmed corners, they go together faster than you think they will. I did them in my "just sit down and sew for fifteen minutes" breaks and probably had all of the stitching done in and hour and a half. Even though my machine kept eating the triangles. (Totally the fault of my stupid, fussy Janome.)

This post is linked to Rednesday at It's a Very Cherry World! Head over there for more red goodness.