My Journey To Making A Periwinkle Quilt

Back in 2016 I thought I would make a periwinkle quilt. This quilt block goes by several names. . . Some call it Hummingbird, others call it the Arkansas Star, another Snowball and also Kite. It’s an old pattern and I have always admired this block.

The preferred method to make this beautiful block was to paper piece it. So I made a bunch of paper copies, cut them into the sewing sections and started my blocks. Oh my, what had I gotten myself into?! My little kites didn’t seem to be the right size at times and when it came to sewing the sections together, I was struggling to line everything up. Cutting the extra fabric off and then pulling the paper off the back was time consuming. I originally wanted to make the whole quilt with 4 inch squares but soon realized I was better off making the 12 inch squares as that went faster. I made 4 large blocks and 32 small blocks and it felt like I would never complete this quilt. So, I found a shoebox and put my papers, fabric and finished blocks in it and stashed it on a shelf in my closet.

When I was looking into the AccuQuilt cutters, one of the dies I noticed they had available was the 4 inch kite die. This was very exciting to me as maybe I could finally make my Periwinkle quilt! I purchased my Go cutter and soon purchased the block on board 4 inch kite die. I pulled out my box of fabrics and started cutting the pieces I would need to make my quilt. This was my first project with my Go and it went along pretty quickly. I watched TV and cut my pieces. That is the convenient part of having the crank Go. I can easily move it anywhere and I don’t have to worry about having an electrical outlet near by.

The cutting part went much quicker than paper-piecing and I was very happy when I started sewing everything that it was going together much easier too! One reason is because the edges all line up which lets you know you’ve got it in the right place to sew. I chain pieced one side, then cut them apart, ironed my side open and put the other side pieces together to sew. Each block takes 4 smaller blocks sewn together.

Setting the blocks on point gave it the appearance of how the vintage Periwinkle quilts appeared.

When I completed my periwinkle top I moved onto free-motion quilting it. I used a figure 8 on all the white areas and then a curve on all the kites.

After I finished periwinkle, I decided to do something with those squares I packed away. I had just enough to make a lap-size quilt. I was trying to make a quick gift so I stitched-in-the-ditch and some FMQ feathers in the corners. And felt such gratification that I had completed one of my UFOs.

I really love this block and want to make a 30s reproduction fabrics quilt in the future. No fear about making another one as my Accuquilt system makes it much easier. Thanks for visiting my blog. Happy Sewing.

Blessings,

 

 

 

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