I love pinwheels and I didn’t pass up on the opportunity to make some for the May miniature meeting. I wasn’t even discouraged when I noticed on the pattern that the blocks were only 1.75″ when they were finished.

The pattern, ruler and fabric in the pinwheels all came from my Guild’s Secret Pal. Although the ruler isn’t called a Lil’ Twister the technique used for the pinwheels is the same. Now that I’ve tried a small version I’m not tempted to make any of the larger Lil’ Twister patterns.

I pieced the initial blocks together at the Spring Retreat but I was afraid to cut into them with a crowd around. Once I was home it didn’t take long to get the pieces cut out (I was thankful for my turntable cutting board) and stitched back together.

With the exception of the stabilizing stitches around the edges there isn’t any quilting on the piece. I broke four needles (and quilted about three blocks) before deciding that an 11″ x 12.75″ mini really didn’t require any quilting.

These were our instructions:

Channel you inner “BAG LADY”

1. Must use the equivalent of half the Fat Quarter on the OUTSIDE of your bag.
2. Be at least 9″ Tall & 10″ Wide.
3. Have 2 or more complimentary blenders.
4. Have a Quilted Motif somewhere on your bag, but not just on the bottom.

I purchased the green and gold fabrics to go along with the focus fabric that was included in our packages. It wasn’t easy to find a bag that didn’t use a zipper; I had a book with a pattern that I originally intended to do.

One day when I was waiting in line at the grocery store I glanced through their quilting magazines and came across one that had a couple of things in it that I liked, including this bag. 

My original intent was to have the gold on one side of the front and the green on the other side but somehow that didn’t work out and one colour shows on the front and the other on the back (depending on which way you are looking at it).

As I typed out the “rules” I see that I was to have used a motif on the bag. Does meandering count as a motif?

In the very early stages of making my Farmer’s Wife Sampler I came across the name of this pattern in a blog I follow. Based on the name alone I purchased it immediately. On a trip through Calgary with Stacia and Deloise I told them about the pattern and they decided to make it as well. Each of us made extra blocks to be added to the backs of our quilts.

I purchased a Kaffe Fassett bundle of fabrics on that trip and started English Paper Piecing a block. With one block finished I changed my mind on some of the layout, based mainly on seeing what Stacia had done. The fabric made my blocks look very scrappy so I tried to calm it down a bit by putting some order into the scraps.

The quilt was finished in time for the 2019 quilt show. Here’s what my label said:

A Jen Kingwell pattern made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I bought the pattern based solely on the name – I’m proud to be a farmer’s daughter. Close to 1000 pieces were hand-basted and hand-pieced (EPP). A block from each of my sisters is on the back. Hand Appliquéd and machine quilted. Never Again!

I thought that finishing this large EPP project would allow me to decide if I wanted to do another big English Paper Piecing project (with 17,000 pieces). The answer is NO!