Sunday, February 13, 2011

Tutorial: Origami Pinwheels

This tutorial is for one origami pinwheel.

1. 4 - Six-Inch Squares
This should be your background fabric.

Step One

2. 4 - Five-Inch Squares
This is your pinwheel fabric

Step 2

3. Fold the five-inch square across the diagonal. You will form a half-square triangle
I have an aversion to pressing so I choose not to press with this fold; however, that being said, the first time you make the block yourself it does help.

Step Three

4. Fold each half-square triangle as pictured below
With this fold, it will make your life easier if you press this fold into place.

Step Four

Detail

Step Four: Detail

5. Pin the last fold you made in place
You must pin; even if you are like me and hate to pin.

Step Five

6. Repeat Step 3-5 until you have five 'matching' squares.
Note: The champagne isn't required; except when you try to work with my art director underfoot and terribly unhelpful.

Step Six

7. Form the pinwheel layout.

Step Seven

8. Seam together all four squares.
There is a lot of fabric when you seam the four squares together. I typically press open the first set of seams and press to the side on the second set of seams. The pins stay in during this step.

Step Eight

9. Remove the pins
Step Nine

10. The fun part
You will -at the very least- tack down the corners of each pinwheel.

Step Ten

Detail of Step 10
Step 10: Detail

Or you can hand-sew the edges down (straight line)...
Example of straight hand work

Or you can hand-sew curves --like I did in this project....
Finished product with curve seams

Fresh Poppy Design

5 comments:

  1. Очень интересно,нужно попробовать.

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  2. So neat! Thanks for the tutorial, I'm putting this on my to-do list. Can't wait for the pattern!

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  3. Wow, very cool! I will definitely be trying this.

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  4. Ciao!
    Bellissimo blocco!!
    Il tutorial è chiarissimo!...grazie molte!
    Ti ho trovata attraverso il blog Quiltstory!

    Complimenti!
    Loryan.

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  5. i know this was ages ago, but i wanted to share the quilt that i made using your tutorial - http://craftydame.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-did-it-i-finally-finished-one-of-my.html

    i used much larger blocks, but otherwise i followed the instructions to the letter. thanks so much for sharing!

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