Monday, March 31, 2014

Li'l Twister Little Quilts

I  love the pinwheels that you make using a special ruler to cut up connected blocks.  For quite a while, I have cut up extra fabric into 5" squares.  How convenient to sew these squares together to make a table runner - Some of this fabric was in Mandy's graduation quilt - quite a few years ago.

 The second neat thing about making this quilt top, is that if you cut the first pinwheels carefully, you have small squares that can be trimmed to 2-1/2" squares, which, after being sewn together and then cut, you have a miniature pinwheel quilt.  Fun, right?
This is the second group - goes faster the second time.  
This is one of the best ways I know of to get rid of some winter blahs.  Make something useful while having the satisfaction of learning a new technique.  A recent article in one of our newspapers said that learning quilting and photography were two ways to keep our brains in a learning mode - I take a few pictures, but love the challenge of finding new ways to make pleasing patterns in fabric.
Now, I have a real excuse - keep this ancient mind in top form!  If you don't make quilts, it's not too late to begin.

Friday, March 7, 2014

View from Our Patio

While Tony was visiting, we had some pretty gray days, but the photo above is evidence that gray can be beautiful.  Be sure to click on the photo to enlarge it.