Introduction

This is the tenth in the series of emails based on Ruth Grihalva's April Power Point presentation to the String-A-Long Quilt Guild in Porter County Indiana. The title was "Piecing Hints, Tips & Longarming Issues."

Her comments are based on our experience with over 10,000 longarmed quilts in our 20 year history. Additionally, Ruth has published over 160 patterns, three books, and two tools under the nom de plume of "Raggedy Ruth Designs."

However, these newsletters are written by me, her husband. I am writing these from Ruth's presentation notes. Nonetheless, I will be sprinkling my ideas in, also.

SAL10 - Pinwheel Pleasure!

In this newsletter we will explore border fullness issues in dealing with the classic pinwheel. The basic issue here is that the pinwheels created have bias edges. This can cause stretching while assembling and longarming.

Classic methods have one starting by making a strip-piece of several different fabrics. In this case we have four different fabrics to create the pinwheel affect. This is shown in the left layout of illustration #24.

Next, the strip is cut into squares, as shown on the right layout. So far, so good -- No bias edges.

Then, as shown in the left layout of illustration #25, the blades of the pinwheel are formed by cutting the above-mentioned squares along their diagonal. This is where the bias edges originate.

The right layout shows the blades' arrangement in a pinwheel, on-point.

Again, in illustration #26, on the left layout, the pinwheel is on-point and sewing the triangles together is not on bias edges.

However the layout on the right has bias edges, as the basic strips are no longer horizontal and vertical. [Note: if you are having problems distinguishing the bias, it will be better explained in the next newsletter "SAL10 Setting Triangles."]

Illustration #27 shows the careful assembly of the blocks required:

1) Measure the size of your pinwheel blocks before assembly.

2) Make sure that the blocks remain that size and are not stretched longer.

In other words, measure twice.

It is important to handle the quilt top carefully, as the simple weight of the quilt top on your lap can cause the sides of the blocks to stretch as you are putting on the borders.

How does this fit in with "fullness?" - Having edges stretch during assembly and longarming can cause fullness to your borders. Also, it has been a long time since the first email on fullness was issued. During the course of these discussions one needs to keep in mind that fullness in quilts can result in tucks and other unsightly irregularities during quilting.

What's Next?

The next email in the series will be titled "SAL11 - Setting Triangles!