Hi, I’m Jenny from the Missouri Star Quilt
Company. Take a look at this gorgeous quilt
behind me. Isn’t this fun? This quilt is
about 70” by 80” when it’s all said
and done and you are going to be amazed at
easy this is to put together. So, to make
this quilt, you’re going to need two layer
cakes. I used this one called Floral Gatherings
from Primitive Gatherings and a solid so that
it gives your colors that, that pop. And we
are going to make pinwheels out of this to
start with. Now, you’ve heard of the Disappearing
Nine Patch and you’ve heard of the Disappearing
Four Patch. Now we’re going to show you
the Disappearing Pinwheel. This is really
exciting to me because this is a fun block
and there’s so much you can do with it.
But first, we’ve got to make the pinwheel.
So, what you’re going to do with that is,
you’re going to choose, you’re going to
take one of your solids and you’re going
to take one of your colors and you’re going
to put them right sides together, like this,
and you are going to sew all the way around
the outside edge, a quarter of an inch. And
if you have any trouble remembering this,
we have a whole tutorial on easy pinwheels
where you can go look at that. So, I’ve
got my piece here sewn all the way around
a quarter of an inch and we are going to cut
it both directions, diagonally. So, let me
grab this ruler. So, you just put it corner
to corner on your block, like this, and you’re
going to go ahead and make the cut and then
make sure they stay together and pop your
ruler over here and corner to corner and you
have your four half-square triangles, like
this. This is what’s going to make your
pinwheel.
So then what we’re going to do now is, we’re
going to take these over and iron them open
and I’ll show you how these go together.
So, set that seam and roll them back. So,
once you get all your half-square triangles
ironed open, you’re going to set them together
as a pinwheel and we’re going to do that
like this. Let’s turn this and this one.
You just line them up so you have color every
other block, just like that. Then, you’re
going to sew them together like a four patch.
So, you’ll sew these two and these two and
then the two halves together, and you’ll
end up with a pinwheel that looks like this.
Now, this is where our block begins and this
is really fun because what we’re going to
do is we’re going to divide up this block
into three equal pieces so we have basically
a nine patch where the blocks are all the
same size. So you have to, what you’re going
to have to do is figure out what size your
block is and divide that by three. For mine,
it’s about 2 ⅛ from the middle seam. And
then what I’m going to do, I guess I should
tell you that before I start, but what I’m
going to do is, I’m going to cut this on
all four sides, just like this, on all four
sides and wait until you see what happens.
This is so much fun.
So, here we are. We’re going to cut it this
way and then I’m going to turn my mat. And
you can see, I’ve just used a smaller mat
here. You can use a rotating mat or a smaller
mat. And, again, my measurement out from the
middle is, is about 2 ⅛ on mine, but you’ll
want to measure yours to make sure that it’s
exactly in thirds because that depends on
your seam allowance. And one more cut. This
was so fun. I started playing around with
this one year when we were up at the lake
and, and it was just so fun to see all the
possibilities. This really can do a lot of
things but this is the one we’re talking
about today. So, now you can see, we have
this cut on all four sides and what we’re
going to do first is we’re going to take
these two stripe squares and we’re going
to turn them to the outside, like this, all
four of those. And then on these, right here,
we’re going to turn them to the middle,
like this, and it’s going to make this awesome
shoefly block. Look at that! A shoefly block
with your pinwheel in the center. How cute
is that?
So then you just go about sewing this together,
just like you would sew a nine patch. So I,
I fold my pieces in, like this, and I’m
going to sew this one to this side and this
one to this side, and I just sew the three
rows together. So, let’s go to the sewing
machine and put this block together.
Alrighty. So I have a dark thread on here
so you can see what I’m doing, but normally
I would not use a dark thread. I would use
a thread that matches a little better. But
this will help you see exactly what I’m
doing here. There we go. Now we’re going
to sew all three of these rows together, like
this, and then we’ll put the block together.
So, I’ll meet you back here in a minute.
So now I have these three rows sewn together,
like this, and you can see we need to press
them. So, what I want to do is I want to press
the middle ones going out and the si--, the
top, and bottom ones going in and that way
they’ll nest together better. So, we’re
going to press these outward and I like to
do that from the back and then I like to turn
it over. Make sure that it’s nice and flat
from the front. And then these we’re going
to press pointing inward. That will just make
less bulk in our, in our strips, help them
line up better. And one more here.
Alright, then all we need to do is attach
these together. Now this is the only part,
you can see on the other parts I just actually
just sewed, I did not even have to line anything
up, nothing had to match, I just sewed. So,
right here, now we need to make sure that
these little corners line up, right here.
So, because our seams are going opposite directions,
we are going to be able to do that pretty
easily. We are going to see where they nest
right here. They just come right together,
like that. You can put a pin in there if you
want. You can feel it with your finger. And,
and I’m just going to go ahead and feel
it and go ahead and sew these rows together.
It comes together so nice. There we go. Make
sure that’s lined up. Because some of these
are cut on the bias you, you have a little
more permission to make your fabric behave.
You can actually make it completely fit to
the block, which I love. I love that part.
Alright, now I’m just going to bring this
other row over here and we’re going to do
the same thing. We’re going to nest those
blocks and because we’ve ironed our seams
going opposite directions, it will, it will
just lay down there. And I just pull and make
sure that it’s right next to that. Keep
that one laying down. And then here we go
over here. And then we’re going to make
this one match up. Now we just get to go press
it.
Alrighty, so we’re going to press this down
and roll it back. Press this one down and
roll it back too. And this is your whole block.
How easy was that? Isn’t that crazy? Look
at that. Look how cool that is!
So once you get your block done, we’re ready
to lay them out and you’re just going to
put them together in rows. And they just line
up just right smack together, like that. You’re
going to match them up when you sew them.
Make sure that your corners meet up, that’s
kind of essential. And then we’ll just put
them together one after the other. I have
five across and six down in this, so we’ve
used 30 squares in the center part of the
quilt. Then what I did was, I took a 2 ½
inch strip and bordered that middle part of
the quilt. Then I took the rest of my squares
that were in my packet, after choosing the
30, I took the rest of my squares, which are
all this light color, like this. You can see
like here, these, these are all lighter colors,
and I took that layer cake and cut it into
fourths. So now I had four, four little pieces
and I made pinwheels out of those. And just,
we just made them the same way. Sewed around
the outside, cut diagonally both directions,
put them together and made these sweet little
pinwheels. So then, I just made a row of those
around, used these pinwheels as a border row
and used for the final row a border of pinwheels
and then a 2 ½ inch strip again on the outside
just to frame in the pinwheels and keep them
in there nice and tight.
So we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the
Disappearing Pinwheel from the Missouri Star
Quilt Company.
