Designer Pinwheels, Art Quilts with a Twist

Designer Pinwheels

Art Quilts with a Twist

by

Dena Dale Crain

Copyright

Smashwords Edition

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please buy an additional copy for each reader. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Disclaimer and Terms of Use Agreement

The information contained in this ebook is solely the opinion of the author based on personal observations and experience. The material contained is for information and reference purposes only and is not intended as medical, legal, health, safety, or other professional advice. Please consult with a qualified professional to obtain official advice you may require.

The author does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or usefulness of any information contained in this resource book and shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, in any way, for any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of, or because of the use of, or reliance on, any such content.

Information contained in this resource book is subject to change without notice. The author/publisher assumes absolutely no liability whatsoever for the use of or inability to use any or all information contained in this publication. Use this information at your own risk. If you wish to apply ideas contained in this ebook, you accept full responsibility for your actions.

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Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

Testimonials

Designer Pinwheels Supply List

Introduction

Chapter 1: Drawing Methods

Chapter 2: Definition of a Designer Pinwheel

Chapter 3: Sizing and Tessellation

Chapter 4: Internal Design

Chapter 5: Design Composition

Chapter 6: Borders

Chapter 7: Fusible Interfacing as Product

Chapter 8: Fusible Interfacing as Quilt Pattern

Chapter 9: Full Pattern

Chapter 10: Value Studies

Chapter 11: Color Schemes

Chapter 12: Fabric Selection

Chapter 13: Point-to-Point Piecing

Chapter 14: Half-Seam Piecing

Chapter 15: Inset Angle Piecing

Chapter 16: Outline Piecing

Chapter 17: Basic Appli-Piecing

Chapter 18: Advanced Appli-Piecing

Chapter 19: Embellishments

Chapter 20: Construction

Chapter 21: Sample Piecing Strategy

Chapter 22: Advanced Designer Pinwheels

Appendix 1: Drawing Instructions for EQ

Appendix 2: Drawing Instructions for CorelDraw or Other Vector-Based Graphic Design Software

About the Author

Other Books

Online Quilt Classes

Patchwork Quilt Patterns

Feedback

Preface

Designer Pinwheels developed late in a series of studies having to do with symmetry analysis and patchwork quilt design. Having worked my way through the nearly insipid exercise of determining how many individual ways four asymmetrical block designs might lie (don’t bother: 256!), I moved into consideration of other shapes as a basic repeat unit for patchwork design.

From the square block came an elongated rectangle. That form led through Ladder Quilts to finish as Crystal Quilts. At that point, I wondered how other repeat units might lend themselves to patchwork design, so I shifted to right triangles. Arranged in sets of four with the right angles together in the center, right triangles with asymmetrical internal design seemed prime for rotation, one of the four motions of symmetry. What remained to complete the transition was tessellation, and earlier experience with intuitive tessellation closed that gap. Designer Pinwheels were born!

Key to the success of Designer Pinwheels, I believe, is size. Small size Designer Pinwheels are little more than traditional quilt blocks at best. However, large Designer Pinwheels permit great complexity and more opportunities for broken symmetry, and they are subsequently powerful enough to stand alone as original art quilts.

As an online class for patchwork quilters, Designer Pinwheels thrived for nearly ten years at Quilt University. It can be found today, in much improved form, as an online art quilt class at Dena Dale Crain, Art Quilter in Africa, complete with direct student/teacher interaction, as well as in the present ebook format.

Acknowledgements

When I first arrived in 1991 at what was to become my home for the next 25 or more years, I discovered on the property a one-room schoolhouse!

Far from other quality primary education for local children, my husband Jonathan constructed this little building and employed a Montessori teacher to educate a group of four to ten children between the ages of five and twelve.

As part of their education, the school acquired a BBC computer. In the days before Windows arrived at Baringo, this little machine became my toy as well. I spent many happy late afternoon hours there, working my way through the two hundred and fifty-six ways to arrange four asymmetrical blocks. It was on that little computer, already old even at then, that Designer Pinwheels came about.

My thanks go to Jonathan Leakey for suggesting that instead of leaving the country, I move to the shores of Lake Baringo to be with him, and for providing his children with such a thoughtful education that it served me well, too!

None of my ebooks that derive from those years of teaching patchwork quilters online would be finished without acknowledging thanks for the huge contributions made to my work by Carol Miller and her husband, Roger, and for all their help and support during the years I taught from Quilt University.

A final acknowledgement is due to Dorothy Washburn and Donald Crowe for their book, Symmetries of Culture. Graduate studies in cultural anthropology and textiles as art led me to discover their wonderful work on the relationship between choices in design and other aspects of culture.

To all: Asante sana!

Testimonials

Designer Pinwheels isn’t the first class I have taken with Dena Crain – she’s MARVELOUS!
Not only are her explanations a miracle of clarity, her methods are genial and the results guaranteed (provided of course one puts effort into it). She’s also very considerate of the differences between people,
and aware of the difficulties we may meet working with her sometimes unorthodox – but oh so efficient – methods.
And she answers really fast!

Dena is a fantastic teacher. All of the chapter material and examples are organized and presented in a logical manner so that it is very easy to follow throughout the whole class. The material includes very good pictures and diagrams which made it even easier to follow and to learn.

Dena does a fantastic job! She is a great motivator who gives lots of encouragement.

Designer Pinwheels is a great class for those who enjoy a challenge. The class taught me how to create movement and interest in a quilt. Dena did an outstanding job of coaxing us to dig deep and try something new, bring out the best in all the students.

SOOOOO nice to have a class that helped me develop my own ideas, techniques and such, and not just doing a pattern. Dena presented her material very well, questions were answered quicker than I expected. I benefited from the work/design section being front-end loaded as then I had plenty of time to swallow, digest, ruminate and try.

Dena could point out things for me to look at in my pictures that were beyond the flaws I knew were there. Sometimes what she showed me were good things I hadn't noticed. When she talked about the flaws it was always constructive. She explained the fine points about the flaws so she helped me begin to train my eye to see differently.

Supply List

To make your first Designer Pinwheel art quilt, use primarily those materials you already have on hand. Wait to shop until you must!

To make a Designer Pinwheel quilt, you need nothing special in the way of fabric, unless you later find a need for a particular color or print. Batting (wadding), is not needed until you are ready to quilt a completed patchwork quilt top.

You will need:

---Your own, already collected, stash of fabrics

---Lightweight non-woven fusible or iron-on interfacing, chosen to add the least amount of support to your usual preference of fabrics. This interfacing has heat-activated adhesive on one side only. I recommend Pellon 900 series, specifically Pellon 911, or Vilene H 250, light but crisp. Freezer paper is not suitable for Designer Pinwheel designs. Fusing agents, particularly those that bond one layer of fabric to another like WonderUnder and StitchWitchery, are not suitable.

---Sewing machine and regular sewing kit

---Standard needles for piecing and quilting

---Regular sewing foot for piecing

---Selection of threads

---Optional choice of notions for embellishments (cords, laces, trims, beads, buttons, and others)

---Ruler (a yardstick, and drafting ruler to draw straight lines)

---Pencil, eraser, or rubber

---Fine point black permanent marking pen

---Disappearing or washable ink fabric marking pen

---Masking or cellophane tape

---Craft knife with very sharp blade and a piece of cardboard to use it on

---A design board or wall is highly recommended

Rotary cutting equipment is not required, and indeed, may not even be used. Never use a craft knife on a rotary cutting mat. It cuts irreparable gouges in the mat.

To make a Designer Pinwheel design, you must draw and replicate drawings. Work by hand by drawing, tracing, shading, and enlarging manually. With access to a photocopier, replicate and perhaps enlarge designs.

To design by hand, you need:

---Paper for small-scale drawings and tracings – 1/4" grid graph paper and tracing paper, several sheets of each

---One or more large sheets of brown paper or newsprint to draft a pattern on, each at least half the size of the finished quilt

Alternatively, use a computer and printer to make designs. Design, draw, shade, and replicate on-screen, and print a pattern on printer paper. Use of color on the computer is optional and not necessary for this book.

To design by computer:

---General graphic design (draw or paint) software program.

---Printer with printer paper and black ink cartridge

Introduction

Designer Pinwheels presents a different way of thinking about patchwork quilt design. The design method concentrates on the underlying design structure, and not on the image itself. Design structure is the specific arrangement of repeat units that cover an area. The structure of a Designer Pinwheel is the same as a child’s pinwheel.

Four-fold rotation in a pinwheel

To make one of these, cut a square of paper or lightweight plastic, cut a straight line from the outermost corners in toward the center, but stopping short about 1/2″ before you reach the exact center. Roll the same corner of each of the triangles you just cut into the center. Put a pin through all four corners, one on top of the other, and then