Pinwheel Quilt

This is my pinwheel baby quilt made with two-colored pinwheels, flannel fabric as batting and backing.

I will be a great-grandmother again and it's going to be a little girl.  I knew I wanted to make a baby pinwheel crib quilt to compliment the pink and green nursery for the sprinkle shower.  Let me tell you a little about the quilt.

First off, it's easy and relatively quick to make.

The pinwheel quilt block used was our free windy pinwheel block pattern.

It’s a double pinwheel quilt pattern. A double pinwheel is just the combination of two quarter square triangles and one half square triangle sewn into one unit.  Four small units are sewn together to make the pinwheel block.

This darling baby girl quilt measures approximately 36 ½ x 48 ½ inches.  I was able to finish the entire quilt in less than three days from cutting the fabric to piecing it; to machine quilting to binding the quilt.

Learn more about this pinwheel quilt by watching our video Or keep reading this post.

PINWHEEL QUILT FACTS:

Pinwheel quilts made their appearance in pioneer quilting during the early 1800s and were a move to more decorative quilts. The quilts were sewn for practical purposes - as door and window coverings, as room dividers in one-room cabins and soddie homes, as well as bed covers for warmth and homeyness.

Like most quilts of pioneer times, no useable fabric was wasted.  Pinwheel quilts were created with scraps of fabric from worn-out clothing or leftover fabric from clothesmaking. 

During the Great Depression era in the United States (the 1920s - 1930s), women often used feed sacks to piece together pinwheel quilts and other quilts.

SELECTING THE fabrics for the pinwheel quilt

The fabrics used for the quilt top were purchased from Joanne's 100% cotton quilters fabric selections.   Along with the three cotton fabrics, I used 100% snuggle flannel for the batting and backing.

Yes, I do use flannel fabric as batting and backing fabric.  Especially for baby quilts, I like the softness and comfiness of flannel fabrics. The secret is to always prewash the flannel.

One thing nice about the snuggle flannel is it's 43" wide.  This meant it wasn't necessary for me to piece the backing.  Purchasing a 1 1/2 yard piece was more than enough for the back of the quilt.  

Pinwheel quilts are always fun and very versatile. Depending on the fabrics you choose, you can have pinwheels in all one color, two colored pinwheels, or multi-color pinwheels and the quilt can be for summer, winter, holidays, a girl, a boy, a guest room, or a family room. 

It would be a fun quilt with patriotic prints and colors to use as a picnic table cover or to spread on the grass for an evening watching fireworks.

Look at the end of this post for links to purchase fabrics.

PINWHEEL BLOCKS

To learn how to cut the fabric and assemble this block, please visit our Windy Pinwheel Quilt Block page.  This page includes a video and detailed step-by-step photo tutorial on cutting and assembling the Pinwheel block using an Accuquilt cutting system OR with a rotary cutter, quilting ruler and mat.

In about a half-hour, I was able to cut all the triangles for this baby quilt with my  Accuquilt Go Me! Cutter.  It's accurate, safe and 90% faster than rotary cutting.

If you are not familiar or would like to learn more about the Accuquilt Go! cutting system, click the link for our review, demo including pros and cons.

Another thing nice about using an Accuquilt cutter is the corners are cut off the triangles making them simple to align and sew together and no dog ear ends to snip.

After cutting and piecing the fabric, the finished quilt block before being sewn into a quilt measures 6 1/2" which includes the seam allowance.

The pinwheel block is a basic four patch meaning it has 4 units.  It is made up of 4 smaller units sewn together to make the pinwheel block. For the baby pinwheel crib quilt, 48 pinwheel blocks were needed.  To make a different size quilt, simply adjust the number of pinwheel blocks.

ASSEMBLING THE BABY PINWHEEL QUILT

Once I made 24 pink pinwheel blocks and 24 green pinwheel blocks, I sewed the blocks together into 8 rows of 6 blocks. The blocks were sewn together alternating each row so one row starts pink and the next row with green.

ASSEMBLING AND BASTING THE QUILT SANDWICH

Once the quilt top is completed, it's time for the quilt sandwich.   A quilt sandwich is a process of assembling three layers of the quilt together - the quilt top, the batting and the backing.

For baby quilts, I regularly use flannel as batting and backing.  Flannel as batting isn’t as thick and heavy.  Flannel backing makes the baby quilt soft and warm.

We have tutorials on creating a quilt sandwich.

MACHINE QUILTING THE PINWHEEL QUILT

After examining the quilt, the machine quilting technique decided upon was stitch-in-the-ditch with transparent thread on the top and a pink thread in the bobbin (pink in the bobbin to match the backing fabric).

To stitch in the ditch, I stitched right in the ditch what’s created by the seam.  Another way to stitch in the ditch is to stitch very close to the patchwork seam.  Stitching in the ditch can be done with a regular pressure foot but a walking foot would be the preferred method. 

I had to use a regular pressure foot because I was at a quilt retreat when machine quilting this baby quilt and forgot to bring my walking foot.

BINDING THE PINWHEEL QUILT

If you have followed our videos and blogs for a while, one of our favorite binding techniques is the flanged binding.  It frames the quilt with a little extra pop of color.  Look closely at the following picture and you will see the pop of green color around the edge of the quilt.

The flanged binding is really easy requiring no hand sewing.

Use our binding calculator to figure out the number of strips to cut for creating the binding for this quilt.

I was extremely pleased with the finished pinwheel quilt and it will be a wonderful addition to the nursery.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the Pinwheel quilt and consider making one yourself.  Don't forget to pin, bookmark and share this post.  

We would love for you to sign up for our newsletter, that way you will be notified each time we release a new tutorial! You'll get access to all of our new FREE patterns, FREE project tutorials, tips and lots more!

Happy Pinwheeling!
Annette

popular baby quilt ideas

• Double Four Patch Quilt
• I Spy Quilt
• Woodland Forest Friends Baby Quilt
• Sweet Dreams Baby Quilt