Sunday, January 11, 2009

Mosaic Quilters' Pinwheel

A group of ladies at my church meet monthly to sew together. They made this pinwheel quilt to donate to a family at a local grade school. A beautiful variety of blue, burgundy, red, purple, lavender and white fabric spin together for a stunning result.

Swirls as an all-over design add movement to this pinwheel block. Although this quilt was finished on a long arm machine, swirls are easily accomplished using a domestic machine. When quilting swirls, echo around the outside of previously quilted swirls to fill in the empty space, particularly along the border. Quilt to within 1/2" of the border to maintain the quilting density.


Copyright ©2009, Sharon Baggs

Thursday, January 1, 2009

9 for 2009: #1

New Year's Resolution: Finish nine quilts in 2009! My aim is to complete works in progress, commonly referred to as "UFO's" among quilters. Look for these under the sidebar 9 for 2009. I quilted this quilt a couple of years ago to show beginning quilters how to use simple designs in a small project. I recently finished it by adding a 2" double-fold binding from the yellow flannel.

Loop-De-Loop Flannel Baby Quilt, 28" x 42".

Six 9-patches of solid blue, red and yellow are paired with two companion squares and setting triangles from airplane/helicopter fabric. Simple walking foot and free motion techniques were used in the quilting.

After stitching in the ditch, I used the serpentine stitch on my Bernina to quilt through the red and blue patches.

Starbursts were quilted in the yellow squares, using a darning foot. Begin by quilting one line and double-stitching back to the center to create one spoke. Each starburst will have 6-8 spokes, depending on the size. All four squares can be quilted continuously by quilting a meandering line from one square to the next.

Large loops were quilted over the airplane fabric to give the feeling of movement. Each corner contains a loopy cloud design.

Here's a look of the loops from the back. Solid yellow flannel was used for the backing and for the binding.

When quilting on flannel, a heavier thread can be used. I used 40wt. cotton thread (King Tut by Superior for the yellow fabric and Signature Primary Brights for the red, blue, and airplane fabric.) Designs used include: stitch-in-the-ditch, serpentine stitch, starbursts, clouds, and loops.

Copyright ©2009, Sharon Baggs