Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along - Sixteens & Pinwheels!

Hi, all!

Welcome back to the Sweet Sixteen Quilt Along! Last week we went over some ways to make sixteen-patch blocks, and I promised to share some designs to use your blocks over the next eight weeks.   There's also a linky party at the end of this post so you can link up and show your progress if you'd like.  I'd love to see what you're working on!  And there's a little bonus at the end too - be sure to check it out!

So here we are with the first design - Sixteens and Pinwheels!

This picture was the jumping-off point for my own design.  While I was organizing my scraps, I realized that I had a large tub of black and white print scraps, so I decided to make my version in all black and white.

OK, maybe not all black and white - I couldn't resist putting a narrow salmon colored border on for a little pop of color!  I love the illusion that the blocks are placed on point, too.  

This is a really simple quilt to make - sixteen patch blocks made in a checkerboard of prints and solid are alternated with pinwheel blocks.  You can't get much easier than that!  

I made my sixteen-patch blocks with 2.5" strips…

…sewn together, then cut into 2.5" segments…

…then matched into 4-patches and assembled into the 16-patch blocks.

I used this technique to make the half square triangles for my pinwheel blocks.  I love this particular method for making four HSTs at a time - exactly what I need for pinwheels!  One tip - be sure to square up your HSTs before sewing them into pinwheel blocks.  Then trim your pinwheel blocks and your 16-patch blocks so they are all square and the same size.  It will make it so much easier to assemble your top with nice neat points!

I used a pretty IKEA print for the back - gotta love those large scale prints!! The salmon border on the front is a lighter shade of the red koi on the back.  

OK - so here are the particulars on this quilt.  It contains 25 16-patch blocks, made of 200 2.5" black squares and 200 2.5" white squares.  If you are using yardage for your white squares, it takes 7/8 of a yard.  There are 24 pinwheel blocks, made using one black and one white 7.5" square for each one.  If using yardage, you will need 1 1/8 yards of black and 1 1/8 yards of white.  The salmon border is 1" wide, and requires 1/4 yard of fabric.  The white border is 3" wide, and requires 5/8 yard of fabric.  The quilt finishes out at approximately 64" square.

I hope you've enjoyed this simple but effective way to use your 16-patch blocks!  Be sure to check back next Sunday to see another quilt design using these versatile blocks.

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And now here's a bonus!  

You can have a chance to win this quilt!

Check out my blogpost here for the details - 

You can help us #bringNathanaelhome!!

Remember to link up below and share your progress, too! If you don't want to write a blogpost, feel free to upload a picture to the Flickr group and link from there.  I'm excited to see what everyone is working on!

Hugs!

Sarah