Attention Quilters!Now You Can Discover Unlimited Quilt Design Possibilities Using One Easy Block.Each and every quilt is a new adventure. Some adventures are in the fabric choices, some are in the challenge of sewing the patches together. The adventure in this quilt may just lie in the pure fun of Pinwheels.From: Penny Halgren
Dear Quilting Friend, If you are anything like I am, you had several pinwheels when you were a kid. In all sizes. Giant pinwheels on a 20” stick. Tiny pinwheels on a swizzle stick. And every size in between. When I was a kid, the variety in pinwheels was mostly the size. The colors were basically the same – silver on one side, and metallic red, blue, or green on the other side. Today, pinwheels come in all sorts of designs. Flower pinwheels – with multiple colors on the outside and a smiling flower in the center. Paint your own star pinwheels let you decide the colors of the stars in your pinwheel. And special holiday pinwheels – pumpkins for Halloween, bunnies for Easter, stars and stripes for the 4th of July, glow-in-the-dark pinwheels for a Full Moon (just checking to see if you are paying attention). Pinwheels have always brought a smile to my face. Maybe because I had so many of them, and always enjoyed watching them spin. I’d blow on them to see how fast I could get them to spin around. I spun around with them to see if I could get them to spin faster; although doing that only made me dizzy. And I even had a pink and silver pinwheel on the basket of my pink and white bike and would trudge up the hill just so I could speed down the hill and get the pinwheel going even faster. So, when I began quilting, discovering the simple Pinwheel block brought a smile to my face.
It’s funny, though; I have used pinwheels in some quilts, but never made a whole quilt from pinwheels. When I made our family quilt, I inserted pinwheel blocks to make the quilt larger. They were fun, and added some “stability” to the quilt. (Which is pretty funny when you think of the whimsical nature of pinwheels.) These were simple pinwheels. Just half square triangles surrounded by a border to make the pinwheel block the same size as the other blocks in the quilt. And there was the fish quilt. It really is made from traditional pinwheel blocks, but one of the triangles was pieced, creating the fish face look. And the second color in the half square triangles varied depending on whether it represented part of the fish, water or tail. But, still I have never made an entire quilt from pinwheel blocks. As I sit here wondering why not, I have to think that it must have something to do with how “interesting” or “un-interesting” they can be. The quilts I have seen with pinwheels are made interesting simply because of the color variation in the quilts. But the blocks were basically the same. Now, for a quilter, that should be interesting enough. Scrap pinwheel quilt, Amish-type pinwheel quilt, baby-type pinwheel quilt. There are all kinds of ideas and colors to make a pinwheel quilt interesting, but none of them really interested me enough to cut fabric. Until today. A new release from our friends at C&T Publishing is about making quilts using just one block – a pinwheel block. But this idea is not just to change the colors in the patches – anybody can do that. This idea is to use different size pinwheels in the same quilt. Now, I’ll admit, that had never occurred to me. And what a simple thing to do! After all, pinwheels are just four patch quilt blocks, so make some blocks in one size, and then make other blocks 4 times the size. Arrange them, and sew them together into a quilt or wall hanging. What a great idea to add interest to the quilt. “But what about all of those bias sides of the triangles?” you ask. “I’m just a beginner quilter, and I’m reluctant to sew all of those stretchy pieces together, afraid I’ll end up with a total mess – every piece being a different size and shape.” Well, author Cheryl Malkowski has you covered in her newest creation, Fun With One Block Quilts:
Trust me, sewing half square triangles together is really simple. Yes, a little bit of practice helps, but by and large, once you have some of the basics down and warm up, you can sew them all day and night and come up with square patches. Plus, with this as a resource, I’m certain that making a quilt using a different block will be a piece of cake. Just like this design I whipped up in about 10 minutes. This pattern, Nelson’s Victory, is also a four patch. And using Cheryl’s approach, you can find a simple four or nine patch, make the blocks two different sizes and sew them together. Cheryl Malkowski Understands Beginner Quilters Cheryl Malkowski starts off with easy table runners and works up to complex-looking bed quilts. These may be complex-looking, but she makes them easy to make. Just think, all of your friends and family members will think you have been quilting for ions when you show up with one of these quilts. Cheryl shows you 12 different projects you can make with just this one block – using different sizes and different layouts. By the time you have made one or two of these using this fantastic resource, you’ll be ready to make even more complicated blocks. We know you’ll be ready for quarter square triangles. But who knows, maybe you’ll be ready for circles! This fantastic quilting resource is the new kid on the block, and not even out of the print shop. Because the folks at C&T Publishing love our quilters, they are giving us first dibs on their supply. But only if we place our order on June 8 by 5pm Pacific Time. That isn’t much time, but we know you can make the decision to reserve your copy quickly. After all, it just takes the quick click of your mouse to let us know that you want us to deliver your copy directly to your mailbox, even before it arrives in your local quilt shop. Plus at $19.95 plus a small charge for postage, this is a real bargain. And with this resource arriving by the week of June 21, you’ll have plenty of time to make your pinwheel quilt to enjoy during the summer. Ready to sign up? Click here to get your copy heading toward you, so you can begin your one block quilt adventure. Bonus for fast action: When you place your order before 5pm Pacific Time on Friday, June 8, you will also receive an immediate download of our special report:
How to Sew Half-Square Triangles Did you know that there are at least 5 different ways to sew half-square triangles? You will learn all of them in this bonus report. Written in the How-to-Quilt.com step-by-step format, this fully-illustrated report will take the mystery out of each method. You see exactly how to cut your fabric and how to sew the pieces so you end up with a perfect square made up of two triangles.
This deal is too good to pass up. Not only do you get a fabulous quilting resource that shows you exactly how to make some beautiful quilts that your family will love, and you also get a Special Report that shows you step-by-step 5 different ways to sew those tricky half square triangles. You choose the easiest way, and eliminate all the stress of sewing on the bias. Happy Quilting!
www.How-to-Quilt.com www.TheQuiltingCoach.com www.Fabric-Postcards.com
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