Thursday, March 30, 2023

SAHRR top finished at Free Motion Mavericks

I've finished the quilt for my Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR). It's like most of my work - unpredictable, wonky, colourful and happy! 😊 I love it and hope that once it's free motion quilting (FMQ) that someone else will love it too.

Pinwheel block


Here is the finished flimsy. 

Finished quilt top of the SAHRR Challenge

The last block for the challenge was a pinwheel. I've done many pinwheel blocks in my quilting life, most of them not accurately, so I took the time to find instructions on the Internet. These came out very accurate....but also very large! 😮

Half square triangles waiting to be stitched together

It turns out that if you create half-square triangles with two 5" squares, your pinwheel blocks will be huge! Too bad I didn't think of that 😀! It's all good. It's much easier to deal with blocks that are too big, than blocks that are too small, at least when it comes to pinwheels!

Cutting down my pinwheel blocks

I cut down the pinwheel blocks to 6", which is still 2" larger than most of my blocks but it works. I added an extra hour-glass block at the top and a tiny square within a square block at the bottom. 

Pinwheel column

Here is a look at some of my favourite parts of this quilt.

Top rows of the quilt. I love my wonky stars and flying geese

More flying geese and some hour glass blocks

After all of this work, I still love my centre block, although it's no longer in the centre!

Centre block - still sweet!

What I learned
  • Thinking through the size of my pinwheel block would have been the smart thing to do, before I started making it. 
  • On the other hand, this block is much more accurate than many of my other ones. It's very possible that working with larger pieces of fabric helped. I'll have to give that some thought!
  • Looking at my finished top, I realise that some of the fabrics that I thought were quite bright are not bright at all when placed beside really bright fabric. The second pinwheel just blends in, even though it has small bright birds on it. Something else to think about😊
  • I will probably re-do the top hour-glass block in my pinwheel column - it really looks a little too wonky!
  • I also learned to add fabric between blocks to make the rows and columns work.
  • The tiny square within a square block at the bottom of that column was made as an experiment. I'm glad that I was able to include it. I really do seem to like smaller blocks - too bad they are more difficult to sew accurately!
  • I'm really glad that I participated in this challenge. It was a lot of fun and I learned so much! Thanks to Quilting Gail and all of her friends for a great time!

Related links

Linking parties

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 424 of the Free Motion Mavericks linking party. Here's what we saw last week.

Melva is working on quilting some wonky quilts for a client. Here is one of them, a runner that she FMQ.

A runner FMQ by Melva

Gail of Quilting Gail was finally able to share with us a quilt that appeared in the May/June issue of McCalls Quilting magazine. Congrats Gail! 

See the issue of McCall's Quilting in Gail's post

It's now your turn!😎

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

20 comments:

  1. Your SAHRR turned out so well, I love the cheerful colors. I definitely think larger blocks are easier to work with. I'm so glad you joined in with us this year!

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    1. Hi Wendy, I'm so glad that I did. I'm looking forward to next year. It would be nice to do something different - and possibly larger, or at least with larger blocks!

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  2. I love the soft colors in your quilt, so pretty. Thank you for the linky party, yay I remembered.

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    1. That's wonderful Denise. I'm always happy to see your work here!

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  3. Such pretty, soft colors. Fantastic finish! I know someone will love it.

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    1. Thanks so much Michelle - and thanks for linking up! I finished a hexie diamond on my trip so I hope to eventually make something with that.

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  4. I love the way your SAHRR turned out - and we do always learn something in these projects. Larger blocks are easier to deal with but I think good instructions are a help, too.

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    1. And thanks for linking up to Tips and Tutes!

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    2. Thanks Kathleen. I've always gone smaller because I didn't want to take so much time and fabric but I think that a little larger will be worth it in the end - besides, a larger block can also mean fewer blocks required :-)

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    3. And thanks for linking up to TGIFF! So many good things from you Andree!

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  5. What a fun SAL this was....I was hoping to join in but didn't have the time. A SAL like this gives permission to play with your blocks like you have - it looks great! I have been busy quilting so actually have something to link up this time!!

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    1. That's wonderful news Raewyn! It was a lot of fun. My FMQ pile is starting to add up so I'd better get started on it soon, including this one. Thanks so much for linking up and dropping by!

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  6. This is beautiful. I love your fresh spring colours :)

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    1. Thanks so much Janine. I'm really looking forward to starting to FMQ it!

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  7. Bravo pour avoir terminé le SAHRR, et tes blocs sont très réussis. J'aime bien les différences de tailles, ça ajoute un petit plus bien sympathique !

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    1. Merci beaucoup Frédérique. J'ai hâte de commencer le FMQ - ça sera aussi créatif que le quilt :-)

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  8. Your version of the SAHRR is so bright and fun! Context is a big part of how fabric looks in a final project. I like that you have really bright parts and more subtle parts, it gives you eyes a place to rest. Congrats on getting your top to the finished flimsy stage.

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    1. Thanks so much Kate. I'm really happy with it and look forward to FMQ it....once my Wild Hexies quilt is done for April's OMG. I'm going to quilt this just like I made it - wild and colourful :-)

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  9. What a great round robin quilt!!! and I laughed at your pinwheel statment - accurate is dependent on the stitcher right? haha!! This is very lovely and the combo of colors is wonderful!

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    1. Thanks so much Alycia. It's so nice to be taking the time to truly play. I'm also looking forward to going a little crazy with the FMQ :-)

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