Ready to Move On . . .

Okay, the blocks for Dulcinea are DONE!  This last batch of six seemed to go a little quicker--maybe I just finally got the hang of it.  Sinta of Pink Pincushion, one of the Schnibbles hostesses, said she didn't trim up the blocks and hers went quickly.  Each block is made up of four sections, and each section has a larger triangle--the large arm of the pinwheel--and two smaller triangles that look like the background of the pinwheel and an inner section that forms a box in the background--or part of a smaller pinwheel depending on how you look at it.  I think you can see it in my blocks below:

The part that makes the large pinwheel is bigger than the part made up of the two smaller triangles, so I was trying to figure out how Sinta sewed her pieces together without trimming.  What I finally decided was that you could line up the outer corner and right angled edges of both pieces and sew along the diagonal seam line using the smaller (two triangle) section as basis for where to sew the seam.  Your seam allowance would be much larger on the large pinwheel arm side, but that could be quickly trimmed just before pressing open.  So, I don't know if that's what Sinta did, but it's a possibility.  The blocks would turn out a bit larger, but if you change the border to one that's not pieced, it wouldn't matter.  And if your blocks turned out a little wonky and didn't match up quite precisely, you could add some sashing to separate them.

I wish I'd thought of this in time to take a photo or two to show you what I'm talking about because if you're like me, you probably don't have any idea what I'm talking about unless you have a visual reference.  Oh, well.  If you're making this quilt and want a speedy finish, cut the large triangles and then cut and sew the two smaller triangles.  Then read my suggestion again--maybe it will make sense.  Because I'd sure be happy if I could save someone a little time!

Next I'll sew my blocks together and add the outer sashing, then the pieced border.  Easy peasy, right?  Well, that's what I thought about the blocks before I started!  But I like the way this looks so far, so it's worth the trouble to make it--and really, it's simple enough.  And, of course, I didn't get interested in quilting in the first place because it was FAST!