My first entry in the Blogger Quilt Festival is one of my most recent finishes: Pinwheel Party, which I'm entering into the Doll/Mini Quilt Category.
I designed this quilt about a year ago, but I didn't actually make it until this year. Since its inception, I've participated in the
Modern She Made Swap on Flickr. Each round, participants must incorporate a particular shape into their design. Previously we needed to include a circle or triangle. This round, we needed to include a star. When that requirement was announced, I knew I needed to make this quilt.
Originally, I designed this quilt so that the finished blocks measured 12" square finished. For this challenge, I reduced the size of the blocks by 50% to 6" square finished. As a result, this quilt finishes at 18" square. Yup, it's that small!
Each block is made up of four sections with eight pieces. That means that this 18" quilt contains a whopping 288 pieces! That small gray line between the mustard yellow and the gray finishes at 1/4" wide.
How did I manage to make this quilt with all of those small pieces? Paper piecing of course! My regular readers will tell you that I love to paper piece. I absolutely love the precision I can achieve with paper piecing. There's just something about those perfect points that makes me smile.
I really fell in love with this quilt and I was sad to see it go. Maybe some day I'll make a second one for myself. One of the things I love most about this quilt - besides the pattern - is the color palette. The colors are much more subtle and muted than I typically play with. Usually I use bright colors and absolutely love jewel tones. As you'll see by my second entry in the quilt festival, I'm really trying to branch out of that color palette this year.
I created a pattern for this quilt with a 6" finished block like I used here in this quilt or a 12" finished block if you want to make something a bit bigger. You can find my pattern and others here:
Quilt Stats:
Pinwheel Party by Jen Sorenson of A Quilting Jewel
Finished Size: 18" x 18"
Fabric: Kona Cotton, Oval Elements, Quilters Linen, Curious Nature
Batting: Warm and Natural
Thread: Aurifil 50wt 2610