Three quilting shortcuts turned into quilts – video tutorial

Today I’m resharing some very popular shortcuts: a quarter squares shortcut, and an accurate way to make half square triangles in bulk and a disappearing pinwheel block and quilt.

Check the projects you can make with all 3 shortcuts below.

Learn these 3 quilting shortcuts and turn them into quilts

French Garden quilt

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French Garden is an easy quilt pattern suitable for confident beginners.

The quilt is traditionally pieced.

French Garden close up

Have a look at the quilt in this short video:

Download French Garden quilt pattern

• Download French Garden quilt pattern on Etsy

About the quilt

• Quilt size: 80” x 80”
• Finished block size: the basic unit size is 3” x 3”.
• Skill level: Confident beginner.
• Quilting technique: Traditionally pieced.

The basic units are assembled into 13 larger blocks of different sizes.

The pattern includes yardage needs, quick cutting instructions, assembly instructions, lots of diagrams and a quilt design colouring page.

Bonus content: video tutorials.

Note:

• Download the pattern to your computer before you print it.
• Ensure you are printing at 100%.
• Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat to print.

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In a breeze quilt pattern

• Quilt size: 36″ x 42″
• Finished block size: 6 1/2″
• Number of blocks: 20 arranged as 4 x 5

Fabric needs

• 9 Fat Quarters – see details on the fabric collections I used below.
• 7/8 yard for the border

To make the quilt, mix the fat quarters and make 20 blocks following the video tutorial.

Arrange in 5 rows of 4 blocks each.

Border

From the width of fabric cut:

• 2 borders 5 1/2″ x 33″
• 2 borders 5 1/2″ x 36 1/2″

Sew the narrower borders to the sides first and the top and bottom borders next.

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Disappearing pinwheel quilt

This sampler has 12 blocks in it, all of them made from a pinwheel block cut into a 9-patch block an rearranged to obtain 11 different blocks. More variations are possible.

Quilt size

56 inches x 42 inches

Block size

The block is 10 1/4 inch square.

Materials for one disappearing pinwheel block

• Two 9 3/8 inch squares in contrasting fabrics

Notes

The initial 4 half square triangles (HST) obtained need to be trimmed to 6 inch squares.

Block tutorials

Make 12 blocks:

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 1

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 2

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 3

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 4

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 5

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 6

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 7

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 8

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 9

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 10

Disappearing pinwheel block – variation 11 – make 2 blocks in different colours.

Finish the blocks

Add a border to each block.

For each block cut in white fabric:

• 2 strips 10 1/4 x 2 1/2 inch
• 2 strips 14 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch

And sew as shown on the picture below.

Materials

For the one block sandwich

• A piece of backing fabric the same size as the block  (I used half square triangles for some blocks to make a star)
• A piece of batting 1 inch larger than the block
• One finished block

For the sashing

• One strip of sashing fabric 1 1/8 inch x the length of the block side
• 1 strip of sashing fabric 1 3/4 inch x the length of the block side

Disappearing pinwheel sampler quilt