9-Piece Pinwheel

by Mary Hayward
(Louisville, KY, USA)

This quilt is a real stash-buster, because it uses a wide variety of fabrics and is quick and easy to make. I used extra bits from other baby clothing projects I'd completed.

I'm not an experienced quilter, so I don't know if there are more precise ways to describe my process, but here goes.

First, I gathered several prints and solids together and picked solids that worked well with each print. For my quilt, I used 5 different solid colors and 6 different prints (reproduction vintage prints mostly). I cut them into pairs of 6.5" x 6.5" squares. Then I cut the squares in half into triangles. I sewed the prints to their matched solids and arranged them into 9 4-part pinwheel shapes. Then I arranged them somewhat randomly and sewed them all together. I attached them to an organic cotton flannel backing and bound the edges with solid colored fabric. It's a 3' x 3' quilt.

It took several hours for me to make. I machine sewed it and had no pattern. I just wanted it to be bright and cheery for a baby boy. I used 100% cotton fabric for the front and organic cotton flannel for the backing. (It makes for a very snuggly backing.)

Good luck to everyone! Your quilts are beautiful and inspirational!