Scrappy Spool Illusions is Finished!

I decided to pull out my latest leaders and enders project and load it onto my machine quilting frame!

 

I love the way that it turned out!  I love the way that the pin-wheels and 16-patches look like spools set on-point.  I also love that it is scrappy!  And, that it is out of my stash.

 

Here is a close-up of the quilt on my frame while I was quilting it.  I did a very loose spiral quilting pattern that I free-motion quilted using a 50 weight thread top and matching bobbin.  I wanted the quilting to be looser so that the quilt wouldn't be stiff.

 

Several people on my Facebook page asked how the quilt was put together or for a pattern so I will do my best to break it down here.  You can see that the quilt is formed from pin-wheels - 15 going one direction and 16 going the other.  Can you see how the alternating pin-wheels form a line and become the tops and bottoms of the spools?  The other block is a 16-patch of alternating colour and white.  The pin-wheel directions alternate rows - one row goes one way the next row the other way.

Now, this is the important part - see in the picture how the white of the 16-patch touches the white of the pin-wheel?  And, the colour of the 16-patch corner touches the colour of the pin-wheel - does that make sense?  If you flip the blocks you won't get the spool illusion.

OK now here are the details ;-)

You will need 

32 - 16-patches each containing 8 white squares and 8 coloured squares

     so 256 @ 2" cut white squares and 256 @ 2" coloured squares

(I cut my white squares before I had my Go!  But, you can absolutely use die #55022 to cut allll of those 2" squares - luckily all the coloured 2" squares were cut with my Go!)

31-  pin-wheels all together so you will need 62 sets of half-square-triangles (HST)

You can do your HST following your favorite method.  If you are doing your HST by drawing a line and sewing up each side etc you will need to start with 62 white squares cut at 4" and 62 coloured squares cut at 4"

If you are using a Go! you can use die #55009 Half square - 3" Finished Triangle or die E from the mix and match set and cut 62 sets of HST.

All the pin-wheels and 16-patches should come out to 6.5" square unfinished.

Then pay attention to layout and alternate the pinwheels every row.  Make sure that you lay out your quilt blocks first!  If you don't you might end up with a mess like I did and have to rip it all out :-(

I hope that you enjoy the quilt and if you make one please share it on my Facebook page so that we can all enjoy it!

Any questions?  Please feel free to leave them here :-D