Tools and Inspiration for the Whirlygigs

Hello Everyone,

As promised from my last post, I wanted to show you where I am going with this quilt and some info on the inspiration.

So here are the first three blocks complete! Don't they look fabulous together. I just love the way they spin, bright and bold.

Here is the inspiration quilt for my quilt.

Whirlygig is a wonderful quilt. But I am going to modify it to suit my needs. As indicated before, the whirlygigs in the quilt in this magazine are all done by reverse applique. Since this is not my cup of tea, I have chosen to machine piece them.

I also will not be doing the applique in the border. Some ideas are given later.

I will show you the tool I am using to create them further down in the post.

This quilt can be found in this book. Not only is this quilt in there, but several others of a circular nature. They are all on my list of to make some day.

If you are a Piece O' Cake fan this is a must have book.

My next piece of inspiration comes from this quilt...

The Mississippi Wheel of Fortune quilt. I think that I may be doing similar sashing to what you can see in the above photo. I like it, but picture brights coupled with black and white fabrics.

This quilt comes from Karen K. Stone's book that is published by Electric Quilt. So if you EQ you may want this book. You can print out all the foundations from the CD inside.

The tools...

This template ruler came from the Sue Ross BOM that was put out by Material Obsession. This is what I have used to cut the wedges for the whirlygigs. I put a piece of Invisigrip on the back so it does not slip when I am cutting the fabric. And I use a spinning cutting mat. Both work like a charm!

These are the foundation pieces that come in the book and I just reprint them onto Carol Doak's Foundation sheets. You need four to one whirlygig. Now because I am using a different template to cut the sections for the whirlygig block the circle actually is bigger than it should be.

Because of this the arcs, once joined, do not fit the circle properly. So therefore...

I needed to recreate the circle template from the book. Using template plastic, I just traced the size of the circle that was needed. Then I laid it on top of my whirlygig and cut it down to size. This worked like a charm and the paper pieced arches fit it perfectly when sewn.

Next time I talk about this block, I will do a little tutorial on making the center whirlygig. Would you all like that? Plus that will give me incentive to make the forth block!!

Shop note: New Kona Bundles and Roll Ups in stock, as well as 1930s reproductions and batiks. Click here to check them out!

The ruler winner has been announced!! Go to this post on Pat Sloan's blog to read about it! On my next post I will announce the winner of the Jill Gordon Fat Quarter Bundle!

Until Next Time...

Tools and Inspiration for the Whirlygigs