Positively Pinwheels - Quilt of the Week

Positively Pinwheels, 20" x 20", handmade by Pam Geisel

The traditional block for the fourth Focus Through the Prism quilt was the Pinwheel block. There was no way to make this one large block with a black square in the center like Monkey Tail or to have four blocks but have the corners where they meet make the black square like both A Second Self or Cabin Sweet Cabin did, so this one has a nine-patch arrangement with eight pinwheel blocks around the black center square.

All of the seven quilts in the Focus Through the Prism series:

- Use all of the seven colors but have one main color (with smaller pieces of fabric almost the same color to give it some visual texture)

- Have a black border with brown stars

- Have bits of the focus color on the black square in the middle, on the border, and on top of the other colors

- Have a piece of black yarn couched on top

- Have curved quilting lines 1/4" apart that echo the shape of the yarn

In this piece the focus color is ORANGE and the yarn represents WIND BLOWING.

My series was featured in Art Quilting Studio Magazine's Autumn 2018 issue on working in a series and they were also included with several quilts that other people made for the Focus Through the Prism challenge including the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in 2016. Above is Positively Pinwheels with some of the other orange quilts.

Because this is the Quilt of the Week, it is 10% off the original price of $300 and as a special deal, all of the Focus Through the Prism quilts are 10% off through 5/16/21 if you purchase directly from me. Details can be found here. 

Project Quilting's Focus Through the Prism: All Seven

Here are all seven of my art quilts that I made for Project Quilting's "Focus Through the Prism" challenge. (Click on the image to see larger.)

To participate you needed to purchase a ROYGBIV hand-dyed bundle of fabric from Cherrywood Fabrics and then at the beginning of the month a traditional quilting block was posted. Participants chose which of the seven focus fabrics they want to emphasize for the month, but other fabrics could be added. All quilts are 20" x 20" and the hope is to exhibit them together in the future.

I decided to make a series for my seven, since we were already constrained my size and color palette. I made mine in a nine-patch format around a solid black center square, with 2.5" borders of black with gold stars. Along with being the most prevalent color, the focus color has triangle shapes fused onto the center black square, on the borders, and on the other colors.

The backgrounds are pieced with the Cherrywood Fabric then smaller pieces of other fabrics that are almost the same color are fused on top of it.

Each piece has a pieces of black yarn arranged in an intentional fashion and couched down. The quilting lines echo the yarn 1/4" away with black thread. All are faced so there is no visible binding.

Here are my seven, with links to the blog post about each one:

Title : Monkey Tail
Month : May
Traditional Square : Monkey Wrench (aka Churn Dash)
Focus Color : Blue
Yarn Represents : A monkey's tail
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/05/monkey-tail-project-quilting.html

Title : A Second Self
Month : June
Traditional Square : Friendship Star
Focus Color : Yellow
Yarn Represents : Celtic friendship symbol (simplified)
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-second-self-project-quilting.html

Title : Cabin Sweet Cabin
Month : July
Traditional Square : Log Cabin
Focus Color : Purple
Yarn Represents : Smoke rising from a chimney
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/07/cabin-sweet-cabin-project-quilting.html

Title : Positively Pinwheels
Month : August
Traditional Square : Pinwheel
Focus Color : Orange
Yarn Represents : Wind blowing
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/08/positively-pinwheels-project-quilting.html

Title : Chasing Geese
Month : September
Traditional Square : Flying Geese
Focus Color : Indigo
Yarn Represents : A bird in flight
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/09/chasing-geese-project-quilting.html

Title : Nine Ball
Month : October
Traditional Square : Nine Patch
Focus Color : Green
Yarn Represents : A pool stick and cue ball
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/10/nine-ball-project-quilting.html

Title : Red Rubber Ball
Month : November
Traditional Square : Snow Ball
Focus Color : Red
Yarn Represents : A bouncing ball
https://pamgeiselartquilts.blogspot.com/2015/11/red-rubber-ball-project-quilting.html




=   =   =

To read more about Project Quilting's Focus Through the Prism, go here.

Positively Pinwheels! - Project Quilting

 "Positively Pinwheels", 20" x 20", made for Project Quilting, Focus Through the Prism, Challenge 4: Pinwheel, Aug. 2015 in Yellow Springs, Ohio

This is my fourth entry in the Project Quilting "Focus Through the Prism" challenge. To play along you need to purchase a ROYGBIV hand-dyed bundle of fabric from Cherrywood Fabrics and then at the beginning of the month a traditional quilting block is selected. Participants get to chose which of the seven focus fabrics they want to emphasize for the month, but other fabrics can be added.

All quilts will be made 20" x 20" with the intention of displaying them together in the future.

August's block is "Pinwheel."

I thought that the Pinwheel block would come up during this challenge, only for some reason I thought it would be last month. I must confess that the Pinwheel block is one of my favorite blocks. I like how depending on how you look at it, it can look like it's spinning to either the right or to the left.

And if you change the arrangement of the triangle pieces, you can create several other blocks including "Broken Dishes" (left) and "Winged Square" (right) to name a few.

I wanted my design to be similar to "Monkey Tail",  "A Second Self", and "Cabin Sweet Cabin", the other quilts I've made for the Focus Through the Prism challenges.

So I pieced eight pinwheel blocks using orange as one of the colors for all the blocks and arranged them around a square of black.I used the same border fabric and couched a piece of black yarn, this time in an arrangement that represented blowing wind. Then I quilted black quilting lines that echoed the yarn at 1/4" apart.

I used a knife-edge facing to bind the quilt.

I always thought "Positively Pinwheels!" would make a great name for a book about Pinwheel blocks, but since I haven't published any patterns, it seems unlikely that I'm going to publish a book, so I used the name for this quilt.

Here are some of my past pinwheel quilts

Left to right: "Cotton Candy Pinwheels" made with hand-dyed fabric; "Picnic at Ellis Pond" with a pinwheel quilt under the picnic basket; "Polka Dot Pinwheel" fabric mosaic

 

Left to right: "Holding Hands" with sky fabric for the negative space; "Blue Pinwheel Necklace"; "Pinwheel Elephants"

More about Positively Pinwheels! and my Focus Through the Prism Series

=   =   =

Click on any of the photos to see larger images.

To read more about Project Quilting's Focus Through the Prism, go here.

To see other entries for this challenge, visit the Pinwheel link up.