The Quilty Barn Along - Fast and Easy Pinwheels Tutorial for the Vintagey Farm Girl Tractor Block !!!...

It's been a while since I've posted about my

Quilty Barn Along 

I posted when I finished the top of my quilt…

and sent it off to the quilters:)

Because I am getting my quilt back 

from the quilters anytime now…

I thought I would share

 with you how I finished

my vintagey farm girl tractor label 

for the back…

and hopefully give you

 a few ideas on your label

 if you haven't done it yet!

The purpose for my quilt label was;

1. To document the name of the quilt along

2. Say who made the quilt

3. Year the quilt was made

4. To be a cute addition to the theme of the quilt:)

I thought it would be fun to embroider the info 

coming from the smoke stack of the tractor.

I just wrote the info with my mechanical pencil 

and my stitchy stunt double Kassidy embroidered it for me. 

The steering wheel is done with 

a satin stitch using 4 strands of floss:)

Of course she used my Stitchy Kit:)

Thanks Kass!!!

After the embroidery was complete…

I chose the backing and the binding for my quilt.

I used this cute baby chicks fabric in yellow

 by Whistler Studios for Windham Fabrics.

I'm going to use Sew Cherry red gingham

 (fabric designed by me for Riley Blake) for the binding.

I think it will look great with the red barns!

I wanted to add some colorful patchwork to the tractor block…

something that would make it look like

 a little quilt on the back of a big quilt!

I added a red inner border first.

If you remember…

the vintage farm girl tractor block 

unfinished size is 18 1/2" x 22 1/2".

I used 1/8 yard of red fabric by Cosmo Cricket for Moda.

I cut 2 strips 1 1/2" x 22 1/2" 

and sewed to the top and the bottom of the block.

Then I cut 2 1 1/2" x 20 1/2" and added to the sides.

I pressed my seams towards the red inner borders.

I used 1/4 yard of Classic Moda chicken wire fabric.

 I cut 4 - 2 1/2" x 24 1/2" 

I sewed 2 of them to the top and bottom first…

then added the remaining 2 on the sides.

I pressed towards chicken wire.

I decided to make my 

fast and easy pinwheel blocks

 for the patchwork border.

I thought they would represent 

the movement of the tractor wheels turning…

and also be cute and colorful

 around the tractor and 

against the yellow backing fabric!

I grabbed my 2 1/2" strips and squares basket from my quilty stash

to choose the fabrics.

I decided not to make any yellow pinwheels...

 so that they would not be lost against the

 yellow chick fabric on the back of the barn quilt:)

The colors that I used for the pinwheels

 are all in my barns on the front of the quilt….minus the yellow.

Red, aqua, green, brown, pink and gray.

I made 30 - 4" finished pinwheels.

I cut them all from my 2 1/2" quilty stash basket.

I just needed a 10" strip of fabric to cut 4 - 2 1/2" squares.

I cut and paired up the colored squares background squares.

For each pinwheel I cut;

 4 - 2 1/2" color print squares

and 4 - background print squares.

I chain pieced them and stitched

 a color to a background from corner to corner.

Trimmed off the excess about 1/4" past my stitching line...

and pressed them towards the colored triangle.

In no time I have 4 fast and easy

 1/2 square triangles to sew into a pinwheel!

I pressed these seams open for less bulk 

in the center of the pinwheel block and

 so that the pinwheel will be nice and flat:)

at this point it measures 4 1/2" square.

***TIP make sure that all 30 of your pinwheels

 have the dark and light triangles on the same side:)

The back of my block.

I continued sewing and chain piecing pinwheels until I had 30:)

I joined 6 of them and sewed to the sides…

and then joined 9 for the top and the bottom:)

I love me some scrappy happy pinwheels!!!

a classic block that I never get tired of sewing:)

Have a quilty kind of day!

xx

Lori