Tessellating Pinwheels

Several weeks ago, I took another class at The Calico Cat.  This one, Tessellating Pinwheels, was taught by Sandy Corbin who lives in California but comes over here twice a year for vacation (and to teach classes).  We had great fun making this one, but I had a hard time visualizing the end result.  

We cut a bunch of 6-inch squares, arranged them in some sort of pattern and sewed them together.  Then using a special template to trace new lines, we cut new squares and sewed them back together. 

One of the tips Sandy told us to try was when sewing two pieces right sides together, have the piece that is on the straight of grain on top (under the presser foot).  If the stretchier fabric on on the bottom, the feed dogs feed it at a faster rate than the top piece and they will usually fit together easier.  What I found was that EVERY SINGLE intersection in this quilt fit exactly without any distortion at all.  It was one of those great "AHA!" moments.

The small leftover squares were incorporated into the inner border with no particular rhyme or reason.  Of course, me being me, I tried to space them as evenly as I could.  

I didn't have a whole lot of time to look for fabric and I'm awful at choosing good matches so I ordered the Sweet & Sour collection with Connecting Threads.  I got their fat quarter package and added more for the blue background and the flowers for the wide border and backing.  (And I got enough to make another one!)

After nearly completing it, I tried to find out an easy way to do labels.  I found some paper-backed muslin called Printed Treasures and then went to the Connecting Threads website.  They had quilt labels to match their fabric.  I just printed this out on my computer printer.  So easy!

Today I gifted this quilt to a coworker who is retiring in a few weeks.  She was so surprised and thrilled.  Today was a good day.