Pinwheel Fun with Our Longarm Machine Renters

We just love our renters! One of the fun things about working here is getting to see all the beautiful designs that everyone comes up with. Between the colors and shapes, you would be surprised at how the little tweaks and changes can create some really beautiful quilts. The following examples of our renter's quilts are all variations of pinwheels. Some are classic and some are not, but they will definitely leave your mind spinning with new ideas. Read on for some pinwheel fun with our renters.

Pinwheel fun with Courtney

This is Courtney’s Ballerina pinwheel. She made it for a friend’s granddaughter. For the ballerina in the lower left corner she found a clipart design she liked, traced it, cut it out, and appliqued it. So creative! Can you just imagine the possibilities of what fun you could have by adding something to your next quilt with that technique?

I really like the combination of the large and small pinwheels. The use of dark and light fabrics really does a lot to hide the fact that there is one rectangular block that is repeated to create this quilt. It just looks random and jumbled though at the same time balanced. She quilted it with Cascade, a pantograph that looks like soft billowy clouds. It adds a real dreamlike quality to this quilt. Well done Courtney!

Pinwheel Fun with Valerie

Valerie made this lovely quilt. It is a pinwheel, just without the points! Scrappy quilts can be so fun. This would be a great stash buster or even a memorial quilt made from old shirts. The solid background really helps the pinwheels stand out and adds a cohesiveness to the quilt. She decided to quilt this one free motion with some gentle curves with a loop that meets in the middle. Because of this meeting, it creates a horizontal and vertical line for the eye to follow. I like it and I think it really works with this design.

Valerie also made these two little beauties. One of course is not a pinwheel. I love how the pinwheels are set in those squares in squares. They create an argyle effect with the white and green squares on point. The sashing gives it a nice clean structure. The quilt on the left has a bargello affect with the way she chose to place the light and dark fabrics. She quilted these with a free-motion loopy meander. There is a subtle elegance in simplicity, because sometimes less is more.

Pinwheel Fun in Samplers with Colleen

This last quilt is from Colleen. These are classic block designs put together in a sampler with a single fabric theme, traditional prints in primary colors. Colleen has brought us this style before, because she likes Lori Holt at Bee in my Bonnet. Modern quilts are edgy and fun to create and look at, but I still like these farmhouse quilts. The bright colors, the classic design, and the simple construction just comes together to make beautiful and useful quilts to cuddle in. To add to this classic design, Colleen chose to quilt free motion and meandered the quilt. This just adds the quilted texture without adding any additional design.

Pinwheels are a very traditional design that will come up often in quilting. But depending on how you frame them, or the colors you choose, can really make them dance and stand out in your next project. I can't wait to see what fun our renters bring us next!