Trying a Twist

Last night while doing a bit of blog-surfing, I came across this post by Daryl at Patchouli Moon. I've wanted to try this pattern, (variously called Square Dance, or Twister, or Twisted Pinwheels, and probably other names I haven't found yet) but wasn't sure how to arrange the initial squares. Daryl, inspired by Connie at Quilting By The River, used a Trip Around The World layout. I liked what they had both done, so decided to give it a go.

Today I had been planning to go to one of my quilting groups, but I have a toothache and would probably not be very good company. So I stayed home alone and sewed.

After I'd made myself a template and chosen and cut the fabrics, I assembled this small test layout:

The colours look better in real life, I think! I cut 16cm squares, and a 8.5cm border, although later I wished I'd made the border a little wider. And I had wanted the larger floral and the lightest fabric to be in opposite places, but I only had enough of the floral for 8 squares.

Once it was all sewn together, it was time to cut it apart again. At which point I realised that the template I'd made for myself (which was 10cm square) was too small for the size of the blocks I'd cut; I was going to waste too much fabric. Rather than do that I made a new template 12cm square. And that's why I wished the border was a little wider; for this template maybe 9cm would have been right.

It's a bit hard to see in the photo, but my template is made out of template plastic, and I drew positioning  lines with a Sharpie marker:

I drew around the template, then used a proper ruler to cut the squares. They have bias edges now, so need to be handled carefully. I got half way through this second set of cuts before my toothache became too painful to ignore, and I had to stop.

Not sewn together, just pinned on the wall at the moment. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing.

In the morning I will ring the dentist and see how long I have to wait before he can take this horrible tooth out. Not too long, I hope!