Pink and Green Twister

I'm not one for specialist templates, but they had a big quilting day at Spotlight a little while back and demonstrated the Sew Easy Pinwheel Magic Template. It was funny, cause just that morning I'd been thinking I'd like to try this technique!!

So I bought the larger one (small is ok but extra sewing!) and decided to give it a try.

Basically, you cut and sew a bunch of squares together. I used pink and green with white background. The size of square required it explained on the template packaging. And then you had a border. You end up with the layout below (pink and green squares with a white border).

Then you align the template on the corners where four blocks meet and cut out. This template gives three styles of pinwheel. I used the most extreme angle which gives the more traditional pinwheel look. I'd recommend using a small sized rotary cutter. I usually use a 45mm but that was a bit big.

As you can see from above you get a bit of waste. The big square in the middle (the green) is plenty big enough to chuck in the scrap bag and use again later. The little bits between blocks is really not that much and not really worth worrying about.

Once the blocks are cut out, you twist them around and end up with your pinwheel block as below.

Then you just put all the blocks together to get your quilt top.

Then I added a pink border. This one is now ready to quilt. A couple of things to keep in mind. When you use this technique, all the edges are on the bias. To be honest, this wasn't really a problem when I was sewing them all up. Also, cause the corners are already done before you cut them out with the template, this is a great technique for those who have a problem getting seams to match cause if you miss by a little bit you can't really tell.

Overall I was quite happy with it and plan to have a play with it again in the future.