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
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
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.
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.
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
My book Turnabout Patchwork
“Turnabout Patchwork. Simple quilts with a twist” is all about playing with blocks – making a block, slicing it up, and turning or repositioning the pieces to make a completely different block (sometimes two smaller blocks) to yield endless quilt tops.
See all the quilts in the book in a real life project
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