July Flags & Pinwheels

The theme for the patriotic Pieceful Patchwork banner for July from Shabby Fabrics is Flags and Pinwheels, two of each. The color scheme is made up of navy, gold, muted teal, soft reds, and cream. The cream has writing on it, which is a favorite feature of mine. As usual, I cut out the fabric and organized the pieces in my tray with Alphabitties and Clover Wonder Clips. I used black Alphabitties for the pinwheels and blue Alphabitties for the pinwheels. I made up the two pinwheels first before I took the photo, and so the black letters are empty. Note the two pinwheels have opposite polarity, minimizing scrap generation.

Next up were the two flags, each with one Sawtooth star in the flag's traditional field of stars. The instructed method to make the flying geese for the star points was different from my usual method. This four-at-a time method wastes less fabric but precludes me from adding to the pinwheels I usually make from cut off corner scraps using the flip up corner method with rectangles. The trim down after the four-at-a -time method is a bit tedious, but it does make a crisp precise flying geese rectangle. It does require a bit of head scratching on placing those "A" squares if the fabric is directional such as a stripe. It was fortunate that both the gold and navy fabric with mini-stars is direction independent.

The red and cream stripes of the flag build quickly. They are simple, uncomplicated strips of fabric joined, so I took this opportunity to try out my new purchase of a cordless iron. I'd recently bought a

Panasonic Red 360 Freestyle Cordless Iron NI-QL2000R. Here are the basic units of the flag adjacent to the iron in its charging cradle. I studied reviews of the iron before buying and realize that any complaints leaned toward using it to press a large weekly load of laundry, but using it for piecing in quilting is very handy. The complaints refuted:

• It does not get hot enough ...
  — this iron is 1700 watts and I found myself using it on the medium setting, not high
  — the steam was adequate; the smaller water reservoir made for less weight
• It does not stay hot long enough ...
  — not a problem for pressing parts and seams within quilt blocks, not an entire garment
•  It requires more space for the cradle ...
   — no more space than the footprint of a larger corded iron encompasses
• Replacing it in the heating cradle is awkward ...
  — not having a "heel" to rest it on was initially something I had to get used to
  — but muscle memory quickly took care of that issue as I learned the new motion 
• Having no flat heel end is weird ...
  — the tip on this smaller iron (both ends) is better for getting into tight spots
  — it was exceptionally more maneuverable when pressing open ¼" seams

Here are the two completed flag blocks. Once I add sashing and join them up with the two pinwheels, I will be off to sandwich, FMQ, label, and bind. There is still time in June for me to get this banner completed for July.

Note: Both flags are the same size. My mediocre photography skills introduce a skew that I have yet to learn how to remove. I should have been more careful when lining up my cellphone camera parallel with my design wall.

Christmas Celebration Gift Row

There are eight blocks to make in this fourth installment of the Shabby Fabrics Christmas Celebration Row Quilt series. Gifts are made out of these fabrics. The pale blue ornaments #23, the green snowmen #25, and the wonky red gingham #29 from the Emmitt and Ivy Sweetwater line for Moda are new to this fourth row. It is always a nice surprise to see the new additions each month.

Numbers 6&14, 4&22, 23&28, and 25&29 pairs to make four gifts, then the four pair trade positions, 14&6, 22&4, 28&23, and 29&25, for the other four gifts. I cut the eight fabrics four layers at a time, to assure cleaner cuts. I label my pieces with letters. The pattern does not assign the pieces letters, but this is a habit I use that helps me keep organized. I write the letter on the pattern and then clip it to the piece with my Alphabitties and WonderClips. A letter is easier to reference than the dimensions of a piece.

First I made up the four gifts from the 6&14 and 4&22 combinations starting with the upper portion of the bow on the top of the gift. These went really quick. The cut off corners were too small for me to try to make them into pinwheels as I often do. I was only constructing the block parts with no extra freebies from the scraps. Here are the tops of four gifts.

Then I made the bulk of the gift itself using the wider fabric pieces for the wrapping paper and the narrower pieces for the ribbon. I made a group of four at a time from two pair of complimentary fabrics 6&14, 14&6, 4&22, and 22&4.

 

I repeated the process for fabrics 23&28 and 25&29, making the other four gifts

Instead of all eight gifts adjacent in a row, they were divided up into two groups of three and a central group of two. In this case I used my Alphabitties for a different purpose— to denote the letter of the completed block as specified in the pattern.

Here is the whole row assembled. It is 9½" high and 50½" long. It is long enough that my design wall is not wide enough and the row needs to wrap around the corner on the left.

I made up this row within a day of it arriving in the mail. Now I have a whole long month to wait until the next row installment comes. But I like the pacing, and the project does not become overwhelming. Besides, now I have an imposed window to make progress on all those other UFOs I have been avoiding.

Links to the previous three rows in this series are: 5/29/26 stockings, 5/30/26 trees, 5/31/26 stars.