Peach Salsa Twister ~Tutorial~

For this project you will need...
20 charm (5x5)squares
1/3 yard fabric for inner border
2/3 yard for outer border/binding
1 yard backing fabric
1 yard batting
Lil Twister template

Lay out your squares in a 6x4 pattern.

Sew your squares together in rows.  You can either sew them
from one side to the other,or from top to bottom.

Here are all my rows sewn together.

Take each row to the ironing board and press your seams
open.

After pressing open all of your seams sew your rows to each
other,as before either side to side or top to bottom.

Next you will need to press all of your seams open again.

Here all of the strips/rows are sewn together to make 1 large
block/mini quilt.

Next you will need to cut your inner border fabric.
Cut 3 inch strips the width of your fabric.

Sew the strips to your large block/mini quilt of fabric on all sides.

Press open your seams.

At this point your large block/mini quilt should look like this.

Now take your Lil Twister template and line up the black lines
on it with the seams on your mini quilt.
As shown above.

Here you can see that I have traced out the template with
white chalk.
The instructions say to cut out your squares with a Rotary
cutter.  But I am not that great with the Rotary cutter
unless it is a straight line.
So I traced out the template squares and then cut them out
with my scissors.

Here is another picture of the traced templates.

The first row of squares has been cut out and laid out in the same
way they were cut.

Now all of the squares have been cut out and put back together.
If you look at the second square up on the right side bottom
of my quilt you can see that I have turned one square the Wrong
Way!
Make sure that your layout is correct before sewing your squares back
together! :)

In this photo my first row has been sewed together.
You will repeat the steps from above.
Sewing your squares together in rows and pressing your
seams open as you go.

All of my squares cut out.
At this point your original block/mini quilt will resemble
a large piece of Swiss cheese!
Don't throw this in the trash!
Cut out all of those 2 1/2 inch squares you see there.
You Can use them in the border,or use them for another
project.
(I chose to use some of them on the back and saved some for another
project.) 

This is what I had left,as I took the small wedge shaped fabric
scraps and threw them in my scrap bin.

All the squares have now been sewed back together here.
Hopefully minus my mistake on your version :)

Here is a photo of the back side with all the seams
nicely pressed open.

Now take your 2/3 piece of fabric and cut 3 inch strips to form
the outer border.
You can use some or all of your 2 1/2 inch squares for
this,or just use the strips.  If using the squares sew them
together to make the strips for the outer border.
Sew them to the mini quilt top as before,with the 3 inch strips,on all four sides.

Press the seams open.

There you go!  You now have a Lil Twister Mini Quilt top!

Here is a picture taken outside on my clothes line.
You can now make a quilt sandwich with your quilt top,
batting and backing.  quilt as desired and then bind together.

pinwheel tutorial

Supply's needed for this project:
1 hammer
1 pair of scissors
1 sheet of 12x12 heavy duty scrap book paper
1 eyelet & eyelet tool
sm. dowel knob
plastic tubing 3/8 inch (about 29 cents a foot,at the hardware store)
wood doweling  1/4 inch
hot glue & glue gun
craft paint (for painting doweling,optional)
pinwheel template
drill (not pictured) for drilling a hole in your dowel stick

Template:
cut from heavy duty paper.

To begin, place your template on your sheet of scrap book
paper and trace all around.
Take your scissors and cut out your template.

Next, take your cut out template, hammer, eyelet tool and one
eyelet, to a surface where you can use the hammer without
damaging it.  I used a couple pieces of wood in the yard
as my surface.  Because it didn't matter if I put dents or
marks on these pieces.  If you have a work bench that would
work better.

Here I am using the eyelet tool to punch a hole close to the
tip of the pinwheel arm.  you will need to do this on all four arms
and also in the center.  Making sure to punch your holes in the
same area so that the holes all line up.

Here is a picture where all of the holes have been punched
in the pinwheel.  Also pictured are the eyelet tool, the plastic
piece you put underneath your pinwheel while punching the
holes, and your eyelet.

Here I have placed the eyelet  through the hole in the arm,
it doesn't matter which arm you start with, just continue
on around clock wise attaching all the arms to the same
eyelet.

Here are all of the arms attached and then the eyelet is pushed
through the center too.  Place your eyelet tool  underneath
the pinwheel.  Use the hammer to affix the eyelet to the pinwheel
so it holds all the pieces to the center.

This is a picture of the backside after the eyelet has been affixed.
To the right you can see the tool.
Take your plastic tubing and cut two pieces with a heavy
duty pair of scissors(like kitchen scissors).  your plastic
pieces should be about 1/4 -1/2 inch long.
Place one on the dowel knob, then insert the knob
through the eyelet.  Next place the other piece on the
dowel piece sticking out of the back of the pinwheel.
Set aside. 
Use your drill (very carefully) to drill a small opening
about 1/2-3/4 inches from the top of the dowel.  You can
drill all the way through, however it is better if you just drill
almost through, but not quite all the way though the dowel.
Next place a small amount of hot glue into the hole you
drilled.  Insert the dowel knob with the pinwheel on it into
the hole.  Hold for a minute or two, until glue is set enough to
keep dowel held straight.
Allow to set at least 15 minutes for glue to thoroughly set up.

And here is the finished pinwheel!  I took this
picture in my sewing room, because it was extremely
Windy here today, and would have blown this
paper pinwheel apart!

You can find the project sheet that I used to figure
out my pinwheels here
You can download the template from this link.
You can also use the instructions found here,
although I only used it as a guide, and altered
it to my liking.
linking to these party's Sew darn crafty & DIY project parade

Calendar Pinwheels

A couple of weeks ago the store where I work marked all of
the 2011 calendars to 10 cents each!
I bough a bunch of them, because I had this idea to use them
to make pinwheels with.
This is the first batch minus the two that I gave to my daughter
this weekend.

This is a close up shot.
We get most of our rain in the summer here, so I laminated the
pattern pieces before cutting them out and attaching them to
the dowel stakes.
This way they won't be ruined after the first rain.  (we get
flash floods here)