Pinwheel Quilt Progress

Well the new grandchild has arrived but I haven't finished the quilt yet!!  Some of you may remember the pinwheel tutorial I posted here where I showed you how to make the blocks.  I have now finished all the blocks needed and the next step was to press them.  I snipped the thread that joined the pieces together when I chain pieced them and pressed that seam open as it was very bulky.  All the other seems were pressed to the side.   Next, trim them up to make sure they are all the same size.  I used a rotary cutter as I'm not so accurate with a scissors.

I then laid them out in rows to decide where they were to go.  Once you are happy with the layout, sew the blocks into rows.  I marked them so I wouldn't get confused  in which order they were to be sewn.   Make sure you line them up carefully and sew a quarter of an inch seam.  Once the rows are done you then sew the rows together, again lining them up carefully so the seams line up.

Then press it so all the new seams created by sewing the blocks together are lying flat.  The next job will be to make the borders, followed by layering and quilting.  Sorry for the poor quality photos, working on the quilt in the evenings means the light is very poor for photos.  I will post some photos when it is finished, hopefully of a better quality.

Last week I posted a photo of my veg box delivery.  In my next post I will show you some of the meals I made with the lovely seasonal veg.


Chickpea xx

Welcome to new follower Catherine :)

Pinwheel Tutorial

Pinwheels are not the easiest block if you are still new to patchwork.  To ensure they come out with the points lined up in the middle you must do 3 things.

1.  Cut the squares accurately

2. When placing pieces together line them up accurately

3. Sew accurately, all the seams are 1/4".  I have a special foot on my machine that is for 1/4' seams.  If you don't have this foot, it may be worth putting a piece of tape on your sewing plate to mark the 1/4"

I hope you understand my instructions, if you have any problems contact me, alternatively  there are lots of tutorials on youtube.  There are other ways to make pinwheels, but this is the way I make them.

When the block is complete it will measure 4 1/2".  When joined to other blocks in the quilt it will be 4" (1/4" seem either side).  I cut out four  3" squares in two different fabrics.  I will call them light and dark.

Place the light fabric on top of the dark fabric and line them up accurately RIGHT sides facing each other.

Pin them as above and draw a line from one corner to the other.  This line will be cut so it doesn't matter if you use a pencil of biro.

Sew 1/4" either side of the line. NOT on the line.

Now cut along the line.  I use a rotary cutter, but a scissors will be fine.

You end up with four pieces, each made up of the two colours

Open them out and PRESS (rather than move the iron around).  In patchwork the seams are both pressed together.  Not an open seam as in dressmaking.  Press the seam to the DARK side EVERY time.  This is important.  You are left with little triangle sticking out the side, I snip these off.  See below

Once you have pressed all four pieces, lay them out in the sequence below.  Every subsequent block you make for the quilt will be in this pattern.

Starting with the top pair fold the RIGHT square over the left square right sides facing.  The seams will be facing in opposite directions which means you can 'butt' them together.  See below.  You are going to sew along the right hand side of the square so line them up accurately along that edge and pin.

Now do the same for the bottom pair.  RIGHT over left, butt the seams and pin. Make sure you keep the top pair and bottom pair in the right order.  They will look like the photo below.

With the top pair and bottom pair in the correct order place them on your sewing machine.  You are now going to 'chain piece' them.  Chain piecing is often used in patchwork so you don't have to keep stopping and cutting the thread when you are making lots of pieces.  The chain piecing in this block is to make constructing the pinwheel easier.  Keep the pieces as close together as possible.  When you get to the end of the first piece, keep your foot on the peddle and push the bottom piece through without stopping.

The two pieces will be connected by a piece of thread.  Place the two pieces side by side with the seam at the top, as in the photo above.

Now open them up and fold the RIGHT side over the left, right sides facing.

 With the seams facing away from each other, butt them together as you did previously.  Line up the edges accurately.  It is made a little easier as they are still attached to each other by the 'chain piecing' thread.

Sew along the the edge to make a 1/4" seam.

When you open it up the points should all meet in the middle.


Snip the 'chain piece' thread so you can open up the seam.  I said previously that in patchwork the seams are usually pressed together.  However, there are a lot of seams meeting in a pinwheel block so I will be pressing the seam in the middle open so it is not so bulky.

When I have made all of the blocks I will show you how to put them all together.

If you don't have a sewing machine, you can hand sew.  The instructions will be the same apart from the chain piecing.

Chickpea xx

Starting a New Quilt

Our grandsons quilt

Granddaughters quilt


I always love starting a new project, planning the colours, deciding on the patten, choosing fabric/wool.  Quilts are always very personal, I look through my fabric stash for scraps from other projects, each having their own memories connected.  My new project is a cot quilt for our new grandchild.  It has become a tradition that I make a quilt for the newborn and I love doing it.  The first one was made for our grandson.  When our granddaughter came along I included fabric left over from the first quilt.  For this quilt I will also be using fabric scraps from the first two.  I really like that they will all share some of the same fabric.

Unlike when mine were little, our grandchildren wear 'sleeping bags' so are not tucked in with blankets and quilts.  Instead their mother hangs the quilts at the bottom of their cots where they can see the colours, and when the cots become beds they are still hung at the bottom of the beds.  Hopefully they will keep the quilts when they are grown and pass them on to their own children.

My quilts include clothing from my family and fabric from my mums stash.  They are full of memories and love.  As I type this I have a quilt made from my dads, OH and sons shirts covering me.

I am feeling a lot better after resting for these last few days and a friend visited this afternoon bearing cake and craft magazines :)  We spent a lovely afternoon catching up.  I was getting a tiny bit fed up with my own company, its surprising how much chatting away can take your mind off aches and pains.

Well nothing else to say, I'm afraid there isn't much to post when you spend all your days sat on the sofa!  I have been planning lots of trips out in my head so when I am out and about watch this space!  I can't wait to get back to cooking so I will be thinking of some recipes to share, including some vegan ones for Julee.

Hope your days have been good.

Chickpea xx

Welcome to Babs :)

Aussie Quilt

After all the excitement of the last few weeks, I am now settling down to more sedate pastimes.

You may remember the sneaky peek of the quilt I posted a few weeks ago.  I have now tacked all the fabric onto their paper pieces and I am now starting to sew them together.  I brought some fat quarters of fabric back from Australia which I didn't want to cut too small and lose the patterns, so these hexagons are larger than the traditional paper piecing.

  I haven't decided exactly what I am going to do, but that is part of the excitement for me.  I don't often follow patterns, preferring to see how the quilt turns out, making decisions as I go along.  The quilt often makes the decision for me.

This quilt is being made with new fabric, but usually I love using old fabric cut from old clothes.  This would have been the only thing available in the early days of quilt making, as clothes became too worn to wear, they found a new life in quilts.  They wouldn't have called it recycling then, but they were 'green' without knowing it.  I also love the memories held in quilts that are made of your families old clothes.

I will keep you posted on the quilts' progress.

I love seeing all the beautiful crafts by fellow bloggers, you are all such a talented lot!

Back to sewing,

Chickpea xx

Sneaky Peek at my Latest Project

In 2012 we were lucky to get the chance to go to Australia to meet my many Australian cousins.  Their mother (my mums sister) had moved out there when she had one young daughter, can you imagine moving to the other side of the world, leaving your family and everyone you know.  What an incredibly brave thing to do.  I had heard about my Australian cousins all my life, imagining they all had pet kangaroos, well I did watch Skippy the Bush Kangaroo as a child.  Three more children were born out there and now they all have children and grandchildren so I have an awful lot of Australian cousins.  I had met a few when they came over to the UK, and of course we have been Face Booking, it's such a shame my mum didn't live to see the advance of social media.

We had an amazing trip travelling from Adelaide around to Melbourne, across an absolutely beautiful country, meeting all my lovely cousins and were made to feel very welcome.  Our last stop was in Melbourne and before we left we visited a lovely little quilt shop.  Well you don't think a quilter would be able to resist buying some fabric.  I bought a few fat quarters with aboriginal prints as I love this form of Art.  I have been wondering how to use the fabric as it wasn't really enough to do much with and I didn't want to cut it too small as it would ruin the patterns.  I have been meaning to make something using paper piecing for ages so decided to make large hexagons with the fabric.  I bought some Kaffe Fassett dots fabric to add to my fabric and have been working on them on and off over the last few months.  There was still not enough to make a quilt, but I think I have come up with a solution so watch this space.


I couldn't resist adding a photo of this Roo with attitude we saw when we were there

Rainy days and quilts

The weather has turned miserable again in Cornwall, one minute we have blue skies, the next torrential rain.  Although I really need to get on with cutting down and pulling out things in my garden, frankly it's too flipping cold.  Yes, I am a fair weather gardener.  I was also hoping to get out for a walk on the beach, but again rain stops play, so indoor pursuits it is.

Like many quilters, crafters, dressmakers, ragruggers etc. I have a room full of UFO's - unfinished objects.  So many in fact I can't decide which one to get on with, the picnic quilt I'm making out of my sons old jeans, the Australian fabric quilt/bag/or something else that I can't make up my mind about.  None of them are floating my boat at the moment, but I really can't start something new.......can I?

I have come very late in life to anything that involves sewing.  My mother was a tailor and dressmaker and made beautiful clothes, she tried to get me interested but I was having none of it.  I was a tomboy and didn't want to wear the beautiful dresses she made for me.  I never even learnt  to sew on a button as I would just get my mum to do it for me.

A few years ago however I decided to join a quilting group, I don't know why as I didn't know a quilt from a tablecloth, but I went along a loved it.  I'm not one for straight lines and perfect cutting, I admire people who are, but I don't have the patience, if I had to rip something out to do it again, I would lose interest.  I also want to make things that are going to be used everyday and not just looked at.  My quilts include new fabric, but I try to use as much recycled fabric as possible, especially clothing from my family.  I look at the quilts and remember my boys wearing those shirts or shorts that have been cut up and included. They are a mixture of hand/machine pieced and quilted.

I thought I would share some of my favourite quilts I have made over the last few years.  Perhaps it will inspire more people to join the world of patchwork and quilting.  If I can do it anyone can.

                                    This cot quilt was made for our granddaughter

I started making this for my son when he lived at home. It took me so long he moved out before I finished it.  So it became a house warming present, he uses it as a throw over a chair he doesn't like the colour of.

                           I wanted a little hand stitching project I could take out and about, I really enjoyed                    
                                                                 making this.

This quilt is very special to me.  When my dad died I had the difficult task of clearing his house.  I kept one of his shirts to include in a quilt.  I also included my partners, sons and one of my shirts, it is my memory quilt.  When I'm poorly I wrap this around me and its like having their arms around me.

The first big quilt I made for our bed, we then changed the colour of the room and bought a bigger          bed!

The King size quilt for our new bed, I wanted it to have a 'retro' feel to it.  When I cleared my parents house I found fabric left over from my mums dressmaking so have included it in this quilt.

A dear friend was moving away, far away!! so I wanted to make something to remind her of Cornwall, and guess what her favourite colour is.  I having quilted things that are personal to her and Cornwall, so have included a samba drum and a Cornish pasty

The cot quilt I made for our grandson

Any quilters, patchworkers out there?  

                               Chickpea xx