FNSI and Quilting Mini-Tutorial

I was so happy to be able to take part in the monthly Friday Night Sew In last night--especially since there was so little time for quilting this past week.

As a result, here is a little mini-tutorial of how I'm quilting these blocks.

 This is a four-block section of the quilt I'm working on. I am sure my friend used a commercial pattern, so I don't know the name of it or who published it.  I have to admit that if I were piecing this I would have pieced two different blocks and put them together as alternating blocks.  (However, I also realize that in an attempt to publish "original" patterns, pattern designers and sellers create things that are a bit different in order to copyright the patterns.)

As one looks at the entire quilt top with these blocks set edge, one sees two basic and common blocks.

 Barbara Brackman's Blockbase and Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns lists this as Diamond in a Square (as well as a variety of other names).  In Blockbase it's referenced as 2375a.

For purposes of this tutorial, I've used colors in alphabetical order to show the order in which I stitched.  You may need to click on each photo to enlarge it or else view it in the photo viewer.

I began at the dot at the center right side and stitched first the ribbon in the corner of the block (blue, green) and then stitched a curve (violet) over to the next corner, repeating ribbons and curves around the block back to my starting point.  Then I stitched the center ribbon (blue, green).  At that point I cut my threads and moved to a new block or stitched in the ditch to a new block.

 Barbara Brackman's Blockbase lists this as 1262a, Broken Wheel, Pin Wheel, and other names. I began in the center of each of these blocks.

 I used my decades-old tracing wheel and a ruler to mark the center point on each side of the pinwheel. As you can see, the tracing wheel leaves a very faint line that remains just long enough for me to quilt each block.

 I actually use two designs in these blocks--one very minimal design because it's not going to show up against the busy pretty print, and a second more elaborate variation for the the solid pink triangles.

In the following drawings, the yellow portions symbolize the print, and the white background symbolizes the soft pale pink.

I begin at the center of the Pin Wheel block, quilting the print side first, [blue] curve to center, [green] petal shape, then [violet] curve to the outer edge of the block.  The penciled dashes are predicting the next curve, returning to the center petal.

 Then, once again with colors in alphabetical order, blue curve, green ribbon, violet central petal; followed by blue ribbon and curve back to the center of the entire pinwheel block.

 Once back at the center it's time to stitch the next print triangle [blue-green-violet]...

  

 until every section of the Pin Wheel looks like this.

I did cut the threads as I finished each block, but on some quilts it would be possible to just stitch in the ditch to reach the next starting point.

This is being quilted on my vintage Necchi BU in 1919 Singer treadle irons.

In some of these blocks I curved the tiny ribbons toward the central petal, and in some they curve in the opposite direction.  The same is true for the directions in which the ribbons curve on the Diamond in a Square blocks.  I'm doing this because this quilt will go to an elderly woman who has lost a lot of her mobility, and I think seeing the variations in the blocks will be more interesting than if every block were exactly identical.

If you head over to Heidi's blog, you'll find the linky party for the other bloggers who participated in the September Friday Night Sew In.


Also linking to Sarah's Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Amy's Show and Tell Friday.  (Icons are in my side bar.)

In addition, here is a new-to-me Monday Linky Party:

Happy quiltmaking....