Pinwheel Palette

I went to a local quilt shop and stopped in my tracks when I saw a sample of this adorable pattern stitched up, Itty Bitty Primitive Pinwheel by Primitive Gatherings. It was made with Civil War reproductions but in my head I immediately pictured it in feedsack prints. I was taken with just how tiny those little pinwheels were and couldn’t wait to try it myself! The pattern came with a wee pinwheel template and now I finally had an excuse to pick up an 18mm rotary cutter to go with it.



My favorite and most time consuming part was choosing fabrics. I decided to pull out all the tiniest 30s prints I had and see where that left me. I still had to go back to pick out another 25 more fabrics after this photo! I ended up repeating just three prints (the navy ones that you'll see further down), so including the border and backing there are 80 different fabrics.



The blocks and border, all stitched up. Yes, you’re cute, but it’s time to chop you up again!



No turning back!


Aaaannd...Pinwheels! So bright and cheery! I added in a few blue and navy prints because I was worried that it would look a bit too washed out. I needn't have fretted though because once the prints were condensed into pinwheels the colors appeared more concentrated, but I'm still glad that I added in the darker bits, which contrast nicely. Each pinwheel is 1-1/2" from tip to tip. The whole mini quilt is 10-1/2" x 10-1/2". It's going to look so cute on my quilt wall!



I love the back before I finished it, the seam allowances are so layered that light doesn't go through!




This pattern is crazy fun and will look sweet no matter what kind of fabrics you choose! The instructions are best for confident beginners as it's a little bit of a brain teaser. Just one or two more photos would have made the pattern clearer but even so it's pretty easy to tell if you're going in the right direction.


My favorite little pinwheel on this quilt has to be the one with this text. I adore text print fabrics but after closer inspection of this one I found that it actually has a lot of negative words on it. Hrmph. I decided to include it anyway, and to my shock and delight, the words that were most legible were these: love, integrity, live, admiration, and freedom. And though I finished this quilt a while back, I'm glad I waited until now to post this because the timing seems perfect with the Fourth of July coming up. You can find the pattern at the link above or at Fat Quarter Shop.


Have a safe and happy Fourth to those of you in the US, and Happy Stitching to all!