Pinwheel Quilt Step Three: Quilting Part One
The title of this post is confusing. Let me explain. The Quilting step of this quilt is going to take several posts. This week I am focusing on the small pinwheels of the quilt.
I’ve mentioned that I am using a Quilt As You Go method for this quilt. This means that right now I am only quilting the top layer (the piecework) and the batting together.
To secure the quilt top pieces to the batting I used some basting spray. Before I got started, I opened up some windows in the living room and put down an old bed sheet on the floor. As much as I love basting spray and how well it works, it is an adhesive and you don’t want it to get on your floor. Or your phone. I’ve learned the hard way—make sure your phone is either screen down or a safe distance away from the area.
On top of the bed sheet, I spread out the batting. I chose to use Warm and White for this project because it won’t gum up my sewing machine, and it also won’t discolor the white pieces of the quilt. It’s also not too bulky, so when I get around to assembling the quilt it won’t cause massive bumps in the quilt. We’ll get around to that on another day though.
I attached the small pinwheels to the top of the batting with the basting spray. This didn’t take too long, and it really worked to secure the batting to the fabric so I didn’t have to worry about using pins.
Next you cut the blocks apart so you have a big stack of pinwheels ready to be quilted.
I decided to do all of my quilting in the white part of the small pinwheels and let the colored triangles stand out. I picked a stitch on the sewing machine that I thought would add some texture to the overall design—I chose the multi-stitch zig-zag for this part of the quilt.
I filled in the white triangles with stitching by using the side of the foot of my machine to guide me. I went around four times in each triangle. I like the look it gives and I am excited to see how they all look together.
The point of quilting is to keep the layers of a blanket together so that the batting doesn’t fall about and get bunched up in the middle of a blanket. That’s why this Quilt As You Go method works. I can get away with skipping the colored triangles in the small pinwheels because it doesn’t leave more than a 5inch square without quilting. When I do the big pinwheels, I will have to take a different approach. But more on that later!
