Monday, January 12, 2009

More Folded Flower Pinwheel Blocks


Here are some more of the folded flower pinwheel blocks - see the tutorial in my last post. I was able to make these before we had a thunderstorm and I had to turn off the sewing machine in case of power surges. They are not in any particular order at the moment. I won't try to sort them into order until I have made all the blocks for the quilt. I am going with the flow at the moment and will see how many blocks I finish up with. I think I may need to hunt the scrap bins for a bit more fabric to suit the quilt. I really want to avoid buying any more fabric - just use my stash and scraps.
I may have to succumb for borders and/or backing but I refuse to buy anything else. This year my aim is to use my stash and avoid buying unless absolutely necessary. Unfortunately I found I don't have much in the way of soft or pastel fabrics so that is one area I may need to consider supplementing.
My other aim for the year is to reduce the number of UFOs in my house - I am going to aim at at least one a month. Even at one a month I will not have my works in progress or unfinished objects all finished this year! And here I am doing something new - how does that work??? I will show you how I get on with this one and today I have been working on a crochet blanket which I hope to finish this month. I will post a photo soon.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Folded Flower Pinwheel Block Tutorial

  This is the pinwheel block I have been making.
Click on the photo to enlarge so you can see the detail.





I have spent time last night and today making a tutorial for the construction of this block.
First I spent some time choosing fabrics. I wanted roughly pastels with a small difference between the folded part or "flower" of the block
 and the flat part or background. I started with the fabric I want to use for the sashing. 
In the first picture I am 
trimming the rough edge and in the other you can see that the ruler is set to 2-1/2 inches to cut the sashing strips.

In the next photo you will see that I have picked out colours from the sashing material to use for the pinwheels. I forgot to photograph the 3-1/2" strips after I cut them and before . I made my squares 3-1/2 inches to give a 6" finished block once the 4 segments are stitched together.
The next
 thing was to start assembling.
 All the basic components go together like this.

The next photo has unfortunately gone in sideways for some reason. It shows how the folds meet together on the inside - this is NOT how I put them together but just to show you how to get it all to go together as accurately as possible.
Bottom left shows the petal triangle in position and the one on the right shows the petal folded up to the edge. Top left shows the bottom triangle already folded and the top one positioned to but right up against the fold of the bottom one. The right of the photo shows it all in position with just the top layer folded back to show how it all butts together. By keeping the folds together it will match up later.

The photo below shows  how to position the 2 segments to put them together and then on the right they have been positioned edge to edge. Fold the bottom segment up on top of the other one and , making sure the folds are butted up to each other, stitch together.
After stitching 2 units together trim away the excess fabric at the corner, folding back the top and bottom layers and clipping only the pinwheel fabric as shown.



You need 2 of these sets to make a full block. Again make sure that the folds butt together.


I hope this all makes sense. Please tell me if it doesn't and I will try to simplify it!
This is my first tutorial so I am very open to constructive criticism :)

On another topic, a very generous blogger is having a giveaway for her 100th post. Go and make a comment for a chance in the draw:

http://bozzysblog.blogspot.com

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Pelicans

We had a quick trip to Gosford early in December, staying with Ann's son and his partner and went on up to see Ann's parents (my aunt and uncle) for a couple of hours in Shoal Bay. I stupidly forgot to take people photos except for my dh Max. I did get some lovely photos though.

Max had to do some business in the morning so we left after that and drove on up, about an hour and a half. We arrived right on lunch time so we decided to stop in for lunch before landing in on my aunt and uncle. 

I have previously had prawns from the wharf in Nelson Bay so we went down there and ate at a fish cafe on the wharf itself. Here are some photos. The first is Max waiting for our lunch to arrive at the table, then some of the pelicans and cormorant after prawn heads and tails - 

you can see them in the air in the top right hand corner of the second photo. Notice the do not feed the seagulls sign in the photo with Max - well they weren't feeding the seagulls, they were feeding the pelicans and a stray cormorant which flew in to join them!

One also just of the bay from the wharf.
 It was a glorious day and the water was so clear you can see the rocks under the water in a couple of the pelican photos.