Friday, March 24, 2017

Minimalist Pinwheel Quilt and Pattern

Happy spring! Well, it was below 30 degrees a couple days this week in NJ, but the weather promises to warm up this weekend. I'm excited to share with you my latest magazine pattern, Minimalist Pinwheel (or as it's titled, "Spring Fresh"), which is available today in the free Modern By The Yard magazine by Benartex Fabrics. This design has been sitting in my sketchbook for years, and I finally got the chance to work with it for this issue!


I'm all about modernizing traditional quilt blocks, so this design is an angular version of the triangle-based traditional pinwheel block. I'm admittedly not much of a minimalist but I like the design and especially the quilting to do the talking.


Before I made the quilt, I tested a singular block with some of my prized Anna Maria Horner fabric combined with gray solid. You could use a busy fabric as the background and really make the design pop with a solid. Or, switch it; use a print for the pinwheel and a solid for the background. So many options!

I think this design makes for a great one block quilt, or you can pair up 4 (or more) of them like I did to create a cool secondary design (it looks kind of like a middle square with dancing legs). Until I created the below mock up, I had no idea that design would appear!


I decided to use two green prints ("Libby's Lace" from the Liberty Garden) because they are so springy (plus, Greenery is the Pantone Color of the Year!). To give this mini quilt some depth, I set the two different greens side by side. It's a different effect than if they had been placed diagonally across from each other.

The white solid from Colors for Quilters serves to contrast, and I quilted it densely with Aurifil 2024 (white) to emphasize the pinwheel design. For the background, I quilted an improv-y brick pattern using my free motion foot and Aurifil 5017, a lovely lime green. I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to quilt this one, but ultimately, I wanted the spokes of the pinwheel to shine.


I backed this quilt with a pretty, large floral, also from Liberty Garden ("Liberty Garden Blue). So many blues and greens! I might just use this as a table topper with the back side up. :)


I hope you enjoy the newest issue of Modern By The Yard, which is brimming with modern quilt inspiration and springy colors. My friend Jayne @twiggyandopal created the cover pattern! It's so lovely - congrats, Jayne! You can see a peek of the issue here and view and/or download the free magazine here (see the prompts at the bottom of the screen).

http://sewinlovewithfabric.blogspot.com/2017/03/modern-by-yard-issue-4.html

I'll be back next week with a look at my solo quilt show a couple weeks ago! I've been doing a loooot of secret sewing and getting my ducks back in a row after such a busy month.


6 comments:

  1. This is beautiful! Congrats on another lovely publication :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congratulations. This is a great pattern.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just gorgeous! I love the way your brain works :) And you just might have convinced me to try something green!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really love the way you set the colors side by side. The backing is perfect and the Aurifil just blends perfectly. Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congrats on being published in the Modern by the Yard publication. Your design is a really fun pattern. Thanks for linking up with this week's TGIFF.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats on the publication. I really like the dense quilting in the white area. I'm sure it makes the pinwheel pop more and gives it great texture.

    ReplyDelete

Let's start a conversation! I love comments and I'd be happy to reply to all who have an email address accessible. Thanks for commenting!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...