Front Door Designs: Pinwheel Quilt Block Tutorial

I saw the cutest, bright PINWHEEL quilt on a blog called VanessaChristenson.com

My quilt group decided to each make 8 pinwheel blocks a month and trade them for 8 months.

There are 8 of us and we will each end up with 64 pinwheels!

We chose to use sherbet colored fabric.

On Vanessa's site, she makes each pinwheel separately, so I decided to do a Tutorial on the fastest way to make 8 pinwheel blocks, from the same fabric.

You could use 2 fat quarters or 1/3 of a yard of a colored fabric. You also need the same amount of a white fabric.

You would draw a 10" by 20" rectangle on the back of the white fabric. One 10 x 20 will make 4 blocks. Draw two if you are making 8 blocks. Then divide each piece into 8 five inch squares.
Next draw a diagonal line though the four squares. You will need to enlarge this to see my lines.

2. Pin the white fabric to the colored fabric, right sides together

3. Start sewing 1/4" from the drawn diagonal line. Sew on both sides of it. then turn and sew on the opposite diagonal line.

4.When you are finished sewing, cut the squares apart with a rotary cutter, on the lines you have drawn

5. Now cut on the diagonal line. Soon you will have 16 half square triangles sewn together

This is what one looks like. It's all sewn and is ready to press and trim

Iron it open, pressing the seam toward the colored triangle

Now turn it over and square it up using a 4 1/2 " ruler

Here are all the yellow ones squared up and ready to go.

Next lay them out like pinwheels to get ready to sew again.

An easy way to put them together is to chain sew them. First sew the two top squares together, then sew the two bottom squares together. Keep sewing until they are all sewn together.

Now cut them apart in twos. See how they are different. One is a top unit and one is a bottom unit.

Lay them out and press them. ( they will still be connected in the center) Press the seams toward the colored side. This will make both seams going opposite directions.