While the Cat's Away

I had a million things to do last weekend. My husband took my daughter out of town to visit a college and I was looking forward to being alone - I promised myself I would clean up and organize some of my stuff.  I've gotten way behind on clutter control, not being able to do much for so long. Just sitting looking at all of the paper, books, magazines, mail, etc. drives me crazy. I get to some of it and then I turn around and there's more! No, sorry, I'm not going to show you my real mess. Let's just say that my mother may be turning over in her grave about now . . . Although I do like to think that she'd understand what I've been through in the past few months and would give me a pass. If she were alive, she'd undoubtedly step in and help.

Stuff all over, everywhere

Papers and magazines piled up, needing to be filed

What's the best way to avoid doing work you really don't want to do? Find something inspiring to distract you, of course. Cheryl from my yahoo group made a Pinwheel quilt that was generating quite a lot of attention and talk. As you can see, her quilt is lovely and everyone drooled over it and we were all curious as to how she made it. Some said the pattern is in the Square Dance book by Martha Thompson, others had seen it at quilt shows or shops made with a special "Twister" tool.

Well, I couldn't get Cheryl's pretty quilt out of my head for days and all the talk about the Square Dance or "Twister" quilt intrigued and inspired me even more. I went to a quilt show at the Chicago Botanic Garden last Friday and what do you know? There was a small "Twister" quilt there too. Now it seems like they're everywhere I look. This happened to me with hexagons last year - I couldn't stop seeing them everywhere until I made one with hexagons myself.

 Fay Stickler made this "Twirling Pinwheels" quilt. Black seems to be a popular option for the setting and borders.

I knew I was going to be very busy in the next few weeks - out of town for a lecture, work to do on patterns and then the holidays - and I wouldn't have time for it then. It really was now or never. I had no time to run around and look for the ruler so I made my own template and then figured out how to make the quilt myself.

Sew 5" x 5" squares together and add a border.

Homemade "ruler" - 4" x 4" cut from template plastic.  Place at seams where they intersect and cut around the square template. Twist the pinwheels and sew together in rows, matching the colors of the spokes. Almost like a puzzle.

You guessed it, I never did get around to cleaning or organizing - I took advantage of my "alone" time that weekend and on the spur of the moment - a sort of "whirlwind spree" if you will - made a quilt just for myself.

I finished putting the top together on Sunday. I still have to decide what to do about the borders, but I'm pretty sure I'm going with black too.

I really had a lot of fun making my Pinwheel/Square Dance/Twister quilt - sewing all the squares together first and then cutting them apart to get the pinwheels. When I showed my husband how I made it he said "You did what??" and laughed that I would make a quilt and then cut it apart to make another one.  A big thanks to Cheryl for her inspiration! There's always next week for cleaning and organizing. . .  .