Friday, August 30, 2019

Seashore Splendor Block 15 - Double Windmill

Welcome to the 15th block for the Seashore Splendor Quilt Along!  This block is called Double Windmills.  It features partial seam piecing (don't worry, this isn't hard to do at all!) and an interesting unit I call a half flying geese.  This is another sky block, so we'll be using light, medium, and dark sky, plus one square from your sea fabrics - light or medium will work well.  Here is the block:

My best advice for sewing this block is to lay out the entire block before starting.  Then as you sew your pieces together, replace them in the positions they belong in.  It's easy to get these triangles turned the wrong way as you work, so make sure to refer to the illustration in the pattern as needed!

Here are my pieces laid out:
Oh - a quick tip on working with directional fabric for this block!  The pinwheel pieces in the dark sky pieces are made from a square of fabric cut in half diagonally both ways.  Those are easy to lay out so the design stays right sides up.  For the corner triangles, if you place your squares right side together with the design facing correctly, then cut diagonally you will have a perfect triangle for each corner.  Now on with the sewing...
Sew a small light triangle to the left side of two light and two medium half square triangles.  Press seams toward small triangles.
Replace these units into the layout, then sew the remaining pairs of light and medium half squares triangles together to make large triangles.  The medium triangle will be on the right when the point is facing up.  Sew these all to the dark triangle pinwheels to make units that are half quarter triangles.

Replace these in the layout, making sure they are all turned the right way.  As you'll see in a bit - I messed up on this step!

Sew the half flying geese units to the light triangle on these units.  They look like rectangles missing a corner - but don't worry, it all goes together great in the end!

Take one of these rectangle units, and place the center square right side together on the corner where the dark and medium triangles meet as shown.  Sew half way down the square, then end your seam.  Open out the square and finger press the seam toward the square.
Now you are ready to add the next piece - this sections can be sewn in one seam.  Press sewn seam toward the center square, and continue adding the remaining sections.
After you've added the last section you can complete the first seam, which will give you an octagon.
Add the corner triangles and your block is complete!
Notice my upside down clouds?  I don't think it's that bad, so I'm going to leave it.  I don't think it'll be too noticeable in the finished quilt.  You know what we say about these things, right?  Just put it on the wall and hang it high!  That way no one will see the error!  Oh, if this was destined to be a show quilt I might fix it, but this is more of a fun quilt that I'll use.  So I don't really mind that it has a few minor problems.

If you think this block looks vaguely familiar, you may have seen it on my friend Maryellen's blog - MaryMackMadeMine.  Her Island Batik Beat the Heat Blog hop quilt used this block!  We both found the block in EQ8 - I chose it way back at the beginning of the year and it was so funny that we are both posting a project using it in the same week.  Great minds, you know :)

Are you ready to make your own version?  You can download the pattern by clicking on the link below:

Double Windmill - Block 15 download here!
Thanks for quilting along with me!  Just a few more blocks to go now - here's a look at our progress:
I'm so excited to start sewing it all together!  The next block will be up in two weeks...see you then!

No comments: