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    Home » Blog » quilts

    Giant Pinwheel Quilt in Modern Patchwork

    July 9, 2016 by Amy 17 Comments

    I love the way this take on a classic half square triangle star quilt has a modern quilt feel by blowing up the scale and using the dark gray solid background fabric. 

    Patchwork Pinwheel Amy Smart

    Some of you may remember this giant Pinwheel Star project I was working on last summer. It’s fun to have it finally finished! (Another WIP checked off the list!)

    Modern Patchwork

    And this month the finished quilt + the pattern was featured in the Summer 2016 edition of Modern Patchwork. This magazine is now out of print, but you can find the finished pattern available now here in my shop. 

    new project with Pie Making Day

    The fabric for this quilt is Brenda Ratliff’s Pie Making Day for RJR Fabrics. I love the vintage-inspired prints in such bright cheerful colors. These particular fabrics are now out of print, but this half square triangle pattern is a great one for using up scraps or 5″ and 10″ precuts from any collection to get the same look.

    Half square triangle star quilt by Amy Smart

    Taking the vintage-themed prints as my inspiration, I thought it would be fun to make a quilt with a traditional design and then blow it up to a large-scale variation. I think that pairing the bright colors with the charcoal gray background makes the colors pop as well as give it a modern feel. As you can probably tell, the shades of the charcoal gray fabric I used were slightly different – which didn’t become totally apparent until after I’d done most of the piecing. Oh well. I like to say that it just adds to the modern feel. 😉

    Baptist Fan Quilting

    To complement the traditional inspiration, I had Melissa of Sew Shabby Quilting quilt it with an all-over Baptist Fan pattern. I love the way it keeps the vintage feel, but gives all of that solid area lots of texture.

    Stunning Half Square Triangle Star Patchwork Quilt - designed by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter

    It was a fun, relatively quick quilt to pull together this half-square triangle star quilt using short-cut techniques (and an AccuQuilt Go! die cut machine) and it was really fun to see it in print. (And it’ll always make me think of Poldark since I was watching that last summer when I pieced it. Does that ever happen to any of you? You associate a project with a show you were watching while you worked on it?)

    Here’s another variation of this pattern. While the magazine is now out of print, you can finished pattern, titled Sugarhouse Star available now here in my pattern shop

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    Related

    « July + Summer handwork projects
    Free Palisades Quilt Pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop »

    Filed Under: quilts Tagged With: Half Square Triangles

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Robby

      July 09, 2016 at 9:26 pm

      Great quilt. I love how those vibrant colors pop against that grey.

      Reply
    2. kathleen

      July 09, 2016 at 9:32 pm

      Love the pattern, love the fabrics, LOVE the quilting. Great work!

      Reply
    3. Pam M

      July 09, 2016 at 11:58 pm

      Gorgeous quilt, Amy. I’m totally digging the different grey fabrics – whenever I have to use non-matching fabrics (and I do that a lot by choice, by the way) I always think of the traditional Amish quilts where nothing was wasted. You often see slightly different shades of a colour, or even sometimes a completely different colour because the maker did not have enough to make it all the same. I love it. Adds to the quilt somehow.

      Reply
      • Amy Smart

        July 10, 2016 at 8:55 am

        Great analogy – Amish quilts are some of my favorite inspiration.Thank you!

        Reply
    4. Southern Gal

      July 10, 2016 at 4:45 am

      Gorgeous!

      Reply
    5. piecefullane

      July 10, 2016 at 6:05 am

      It’s beautiful; if you hadn’t mentioned it, I’d have thought you had carefully placed the different grey pieces, it looks fabulous

      Reply
    6. Scorpie

      July 10, 2016 at 6:22 am

      Just ordered the magazine so I could get the pattern. Thanks for the heads-up. Love the quilt and I think I have the perfect fabric to use for it.

      Reply
    7. Lizzie in Sweden

      July 10, 2016 at 6:59 am

      The different charcoal make it sparkle! And diamond planes make this almost 3D if you look at it right. Fabulous quilt!

      Reply
    8. Jamie

      July 10, 2016 at 7:34 am

      The fabrics look great paired with the dark fabric! I have a nice little collection of pie making day and preordered some one room schoolhouse too–and it just shipped!

      Reply
    9. Karen

      July 10, 2016 at 12:49 pm

      Congratulations on another quilt being published, Amy! This is a real stunner–the gray is such a dramatic background, and reminds me of an Amish quilt, too.

      Reply
    10. Mary Hanson

      July 10, 2016 at 1:21 pm

      Want to order fabric for this pattern–will fat quarters of pie making be enough? I have to wait a couple days before I get anywhere to get the magazine. Yours is gorgeous!

      Reply
      • Amy Smart

        July 10, 2016 at 9:31 pm

        Yes! I used fat quarters when I made this one. You’ll need 4 yards of the background (gray) fabric.

        Reply
    11. Janie

      July 10, 2016 at 2:35 pm

      Perfect! I like the ‘baptist fan’ quilting too.

      Reply
    12. Cheryl barnes

      July 10, 2016 at 4:05 pm

      So gorgeous Amy! My first love….HST

      This one is next for me if I ever finish the Farmhouse quilt of yours only I’m doing a King lol

      Reply
    13. Cheryl barnes

      July 10, 2016 at 4:12 pm

      Any way you could post a pic of the back? I’d love to see the backing 😉

      Reply
    14. Lizzy

      July 11, 2016 at 1:22 am

      This is GORGEOUS!!!

      Reply
    15. Rebecca Grace

      July 11, 2016 at 10:35 am

      Such a pretty quilt, Amy! The allover Baptist Fan quilting pattern is perfect, too.

      Reply

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