Featured Quilt of the Week - "Double Pinwheels at the State Fair"

The Double Pinwheel block is so appropriate for a baby quilt. Do they still make those little hand-held toys that are plastic blades on a stick and whirl when you blow on them? Even if not, you can have your own colorful pinwheels on this quilt.


Not only was this block enjoyable to make, but I had a lot of fun making it as scrappy as I could.


Digging through my considerable stash of 30s fabrics to find my very favorite ones was no chore at all. Of course, when I finished, it looked as if there had been a whopper of an explosion that had strewn all these cheerful prints all over my quilt studio.

This quilt is square in shape, measuring 42" x 42" and would be great for a little boy or girl.


The coordinating backing I chose is a light purple with a small white flower on it.


I quilted it with all-over wavy lines to represent the breeze which will keep the double pinwheels spinning, and spinning, and spinning.

You can see more pictures and read more about this quilt by clicking here.

This particular quilt is one of my favorites that I've made to date. I hope it appeals to you for your own little one or perhaps to give as a special gift for a newborn or toddler you know.

Baby Bibs

In the past I've made and sold a lot of quilted baby bibs.

This is the style I've always made before. With the bias binding extended so the bib could be tied on. (Sorry the quilting doesn't show up on any of these pictures.)

They are reversible and become softer and more absorbent the more they're washed.

Recently my daughter suggested (she's an idea-person just like her dad . . . always thinking too much . . . they drive me crazy) I revise my pattern so that the bib closed in back with either velcro or a snap. Hmm, actually a good idea. Easier on and off. (I would have thought of that sooner or later. Uh-huh, sure.)

So this is my first prototype with a snap closure. Only problem I'm having is to get the bias binding to go around the two top curved pieces smoothly enough. Not an easy job, I'm finding. (Lots of blue smoke coming out of my ears while I'm fighting with it.)

The snap closure still allows the bib to be easily reversible. No problem there. I just have to figure out a way to get the binding to go on easier (painstakingly slow to sew around those tight curves) and lay flatter without wrinkles, crinkles, tucks and bunches. I think next I might try pillowcasing it with no binding.

Back to the drawing board.

Double Pinwheel Finished

Gosh, I just love this baby quilt. Not meaning at all to toot my own toy horn, it's just the way the total scrappiness of it came together and is so visually pleasing. Although it was entirely my composition, I can't really intentionally take credit for it working out so well. There were many times as I put another block up on my design wall that I thought, "Whoa! Too much goin' on here! This is never gonna work."

But I'm nothing if not stubborn (just ask the man I live with) so I kept grabbing more scraps and making more blocks.

And I am very happy with the finished product.

I didn't want to quilt it with anything that would add more visual busyness to the front, so I did all-over diagonal wavy lines which give just enough interest to the solid reading backing.

The quilt is 42" square and I bound it with the backing fabric.

I do love both scrap quilts and 30s reproduction fabrics so that's probably why this one strikes a particular chord with me. Hope you like it, too.

The Farmer's Wife's Scraps

This baby quilt top is made using the old traditional Double Pinwheel block. I used a large variety of 30s fabric scraps to make it. The fabrics are all reminiscent of those you might have found as feed sacks during that period in our history.

Women made many a dress or apron or piece of child's clothing from the material of the bags that the men brought feed home in. I can just imagine all these scraps being the leftovers after the woman of the house sewed first dresses, then aprons, and finally used her collection of small pieces she had remaining to construct this baby quilt possibly for the anticipated arrival of the newest member of her large farm family.

Next on my agenda . . . sandwiching and quilting.