Framed Pinwheels Quilt Along: Week 4

It’s Week 4 of our Framed Pinwheels quilt along! This pattern is from Missouri Star Quilt Company, my favorite Missouri Star pattern. You can read a little more about that and why it’s my favorite HERE.

Videos for this week

I’ve been making lots of videos for this quilt along: demos, advice, reveals and such. We just have one video for this week.

Making Pinwheels

I will be adding videos throughout the quilt along. You can view all of the currently available videos at any time in this playlist.

On the Schedule for this Week

For this week, we are getting into the fun part and making our pinwheels.

A Few Things to Consider with Pinwheels

There are some things I think you need to address when making pinwheels

1. Make sure they’re spinning in the right direction.
In the graphic below, you can see how it makes a difference that the pinwheels are spinning in the same direction. The green pinwheel on the top left is spinning in the same direction shown in the pattern. The yellow one on the top right is going in the opposite direction. They both look fine, but when you start sewing them together, that’s when you notice that one of them isn’t correct. It doesn’t even matter which direction they are going, but you do need to be consistent and make them all the same so that they come together correctly. It is a small mistake, and would get lost in your whole quilt. So, I’m not sure if I would unpick perfectly good stitches for that.

2. Getting the seams, including the diagonal seams to meet up
For this, I like to press the seams in my half square triangles to the dark side and press my vertical seams to towards the dark side as well. This helps everything nest and line up easier.

3. Keeping your points
For this I like to put a pin right throught the place where the diagonal seams meet up in both rows and try to sew my seam allowance through the point where the pin is going in.

4. Reducing the bulk where all 8 seams come together
You’ll need to reduce the bulk to get your pinwheels to lay flat. Also, there will be a hard knot where all those seams come together. Depending on you machine, it may even a break a needle if you try to quilt through that spot. My Janome M7 is a BEAST and has sewn through worse, but I have broken some needles on a previous machine from quilting too close to this. My favorite way to reduce this issue is to spin my seams.

If none of that makes sense to you, I’ve got you covered. I go over all of this in more depth in my YouTube video for this week in the quilt along. You can watch that HERE.

Each Week on the Blog

I’ll link to all of the other weeks near the end of each post. I will add each post here as I have them. You can also find this on the Quilt Alongs Page.

Week 1 – Gather Fabrics & Cut Pieces
Week 2 – Make Half Square Triangles
Week 3 – Trim Half Square Triangles
Week 4 – You are currently at the Week 4 post
Week 5 – Make 9-Patches
Week 6 – Cut, Rearrange, and Resew your 9-Patches
Week 7 – Assemble Your Quilt Top

Prize for this Week

Our prize for this week is my Ninja Star Sampler patterns to make the quilt top pictured above. Ninja Star Sampler was my first block of the month back in 2024. This is kind of a cool prize because I closed it after the block of the month, and it isn’t available to purchase anymore. I am gradually writing full quilt patterns for six of the blocks. You can find those HERE. As of the time I published this post, I only have January done so far, but they will all be added to that same link as they are finished.

These patterns are in PDF formant. So this prize is available to both a US winner or an international winner.

To be eligible for prizes:

– You must be following me and all our sponsors on Instagram and post at least one progress picture for the week on Instagram by Monday at 5:00 PM Central Time. You must tag me @snugglebugstitching and Missouri Star Quilt Company @missouriquiltco in your posts and use the #framedpinwheelsqal and #msqcshowandtell.

Here are the Instagram accounts you need to be following to be elligible for prizes:
@snugglebugstitching
@benartex_fabrics
@missouriquiltco
@cutloosepress
@thegypsyquilter

-I will announce the winner on Instagram and tag the lucky quilt alonger so that they know they’ve won. The winner will have one week to contact me to claim the prize. Any unclaimed prizes will be forfeited.