Pinwheels on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 282 of Free Motion Mavericks. I'm now in the process of free motion quilting (FMQ) my Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt.

Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt

On my last Free Motion Mavericks post, I had just been doing some stitching-in-the-ditch around all of the blocks. I took my time and since the background fabric is white, there was usually white fabric to stitch around so that the thread didn't show up too much. I know that I could use invisible thread but I really want to learn to get better, not just hide my mistakes. Overall, I'm quite happy with the results of this FMQ so far.

Quilting-in-the-ditch to outline the star

Quilting-in-the-ditch is done
and it's ready to FMQ

Picking a FMQ design

Now comes the hard part - what design to use?

My first question is: do I want the FMQ to be circular /curvy, or angular / straight? Since the piecing of both the pinwheels and stars is angular with half square triangles (HST), do I want to emphasize this or create contrast by adding curves? I can, of course do both but it would need to be consistent throughout the quilt.

My second question, applies to the pinwheel blocks: do I use a separate design for each HST or an overall design?

I guess my third consideration is purely practical - how much effort and time do I want to take to FMQ the pinwheel blocks, given that they will be secondary to the centre piece.

I quickly looked at my FMQ journal but decided that I would check the internet for "fmq designs for pinwheel blocks". I got an interesting variety of images. I drew variations of some of my favourites:

FMQ curves within the block

Assortment of FMQ lines that could be used in the block

Overall designs that can be used

Choosing just one design is beyond me at this time (fuzzy brains don't like making decisions).
Since there are 7 sets of pinwheel blocks within the baby quilt, I could FMQ each set of blocks differently. I think that as long as each pinwheel is treated the same within each block, that this should give it enough cohesiveness. I can only hope 😊 Let's face it, no matter what, it's bound to be a cute baby quilt - so I'm going for the practicing with variety option.

Here are the two sets of pinwheels that I FMQ this evening.

I chose to FMQ spirals around this first batch of pinwheels, mostly because they are the worse constructed ones. My problem at the time wasn't piecing bur rather trimming. I'm hoping that the spirals won't accent the problem.

FMQ spirals in each pinwheel block

This second design is from Angela Walter's video, Three Ways to Machine Quilt Pinwheel Blocks. In this block, she creates a tiny pinwheel in the white background fabric and then adds extra lines to highlight the mini pinwheels. In the coloured triangles she uses a dot-to-dot design to add two wedges inside them.

Adding a mini pinwheel shape in the background triangles

What's on for the week

I've signed up for the TextileArtist.org Stitch Club and have just accessed the Facebook page. I haven't done this week's workshop yet, so I'm hoping to get that going so that I don't fall behind.
I also want to work on my Traveller's Blanket. Here is my last post. I've done a little bit of work on it, including making a couple more meditation stitched blocks.
Finally if the fuzzy brain lifts a little, I have a niece who is waiting for her curtains 😊

What I learned

Am I over thinking the design for the pinwheels? Probably. On the other hand these images will be pasted into my FMQ journal so that I'll have a number of choices for the next time.
Full disclosure (as they say), one of the reasons I'm going with a variety is that the design I like the best is the one that I almost always choose....so I'm going to try out other things. When I've tried them out, we'll see how they turn out and if my favourite is still the same😊.

Free Motion Mavericks

The party wasn't big last week but we had some wonderful link-ups. Thank you! As the instructions for the link-up states, the first person who links up from a new country gets a special mention and their country is added to the list. So, a big welcome to Turid from Norway. She finished a FMQ dinosaurs quilt for her grandson. As you can imagine, he was thrilled! If you didn't catch the post last time, here's the link!

Dinosaurs Quilt by Turid

It's your turn now!

18 comments:

Frédérique - Quilting Patchwork Appliqué28 May 2020 at 07:22
J'aime l'effet de la spirale, très joli. Et ce motif d'Angela est très réussi, il met bien en valeur les pinwheels !
Sandra Walker29 May 2020 at 12:23
Good choice to do different FMQ in the pinwheels, though I'd suggest from past experience not to get too crazy as it won't show like it does on solids. I like the spirals and you can never go wrong with Angela's designs. :-)
Kate30 May 2020 at 09:59
The quilting so far looks great! Hopefully you are getting a better handle on what works and what you like more. Happy stitching this week.
Alycia~Quiltygirl31 May 2020 at 10:54
look at all those fun choices! this will be a great finish!
Muv1 June 2020 at 17:45
Hello Andrée, love those pinwheels! You are right - it's hard to tell at this stage which quilting looks best. I like both!
For the love of geese2 June 2020 at 13:45
Oh wow, this is the one I have been waiting to see. Saying I love this quilt is an understatement, I just cant find the right word. The FMQ is looking great. I'm anxiously awaiting this finish.
Roseanne2 June 2020 at 19:27
Hi Andree! As I was reading your post, I was mentally saying add some spirals to imply the pinwheels are spinning. I think you did a great job - all of your quilting looks wonderful. I am wondering what you're going to put in the center? You could do some ghost stars and pinwheels. Anyway, thanks for linking up this week. ~smile~ Roseanne
Dione Gardner-Stephen3 June 2020 at 07:37
Sounds like this will be a terrific reference quilt. I'll be interested to see if your favourite sticks, or whether you get a new favourite(s). Either way, you will get a heap of valuable experience and a finish. Thanks for sharing at the Chameleon's Colour & Inspiration Party.
Turid4 June 2020 at 16:32
Thank you for featuring me. But I'm not from Sweden, but from Norway.