Some years ago, my online quilt group did a mystery quilt, and it turned out to be the carpenter's wheel quilt pattern. I loved it--and that's really saying something, because I don't really like mystery quilts much. With mystery quilts, I never seem to get the fabrics right, but with this pattern, all you need are three fabrics that look well together but have a high contrast--pretty simple, really.
The other day, I decided I wanted to make some quick Halloween mini quilts. When I thought about the colors I wanted--orange, black, and white--and the need for a quick pattern, the carpenter's wheel came to mind. Here's what I came up with:
These are four small quilt tops that measure 24" square. But wouldn't they also be stunning sewn together into one lap sized quilt? It's tempting!
Tomorrow I'll get busy quilting these--I'm going to keep the quilting pretty simple since they're small, so they should be finished fairly quickly, I think.
These aren't the only Halloween carpenter's wheel quilts I've made. I actually have a larger one that I made using my Fireworks! pattern (originally designed as a Fourth of July quilt pattern). Right now, it resides on the sofa and is excellent for keeping away the fall chill.
There's not as much contrast and more "print" in the fabrics I used in the larger quilt, but the minis I'm making look very dimensional, don't they? I find it fascinating to see and compare the results when using different fabrics, prints, and color placement--you can see those differences between the larger quilt and the minis and then between each of the minis themselves where the color placement varies.
By the way, there are no Y-seams--there are 16 half square triangles of each color combination (i.e., orange/black, orange/white, and black/white) and 16 plain squares of whatever the background color will be. Easy-peasy, yes?!
I'll show these again once I get the quilting and binding done. I don't think I'm going to add borders; picking binding fabrics should be interesting! What do you think about a black and orange stripe on the bias?
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11 comments:
The Carpenter's wheels are stunning, I think a striped binding would look very effective.
I like your small blocks and they should look great sprinkled all over your house. Yes to the border bias stripe.....
Wow...I love those blocks!!! I've never made one but wish I had the pattern you used because I love the size of your blocks! Do you have the pattern name?
By all means they should be sewn together into a lap quilt. And then finished. And given to me. I love 'em.
These are beautiful, I need to make a fall one for my office. I love all of them.
YES! Love stripes!!
Very striking! Love the orange and black.
The stripes would look great. I can't wait to see them finished. Isn't it great to be off work and get so much accomplished. It is too bad you had to have surgery to be off work. Don't over work your hand.
Love those Halloween blocks. Simple you say? No Y seams? I'll have to look into this...
I love strips as binding.
Those are awesome! Whole lap quilt is the way to go!
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