Today I'm fusing and piecing a new baby quilt - the Whirligig Quilt! Learn how to prep your fabric, cut your circle shapes, and piece your quilt top in this video:
You can find the pattern for the Whirligig Baby Quilt in the Circle Template Set. I pretty much shared all the info you need in the video above, but I know a lot of quilters like a written pattern too!
Find Lite Steam-a-Seam 2 Here. I used this fusible web and applied a square to the back of my layer cake (10 inch) squares. It's very easy to work with and super sticky so placing and fusing your pieces is easy and quick!
I stabilize my templates with True Grips. The dots fit best on these narrow circle templates and help stop the ruler from shifting as you cut around it.
Fusing Your Fabric
While yes, you can use yardage for your fused curved pieces, I found it easier to work with precut 10-inch squares. I’m not a huge fan of fusing large pieces of fabric because I always end up burning the fusible web in one section and not fusing long enough in others. 10-inch squares are much more manageable and you’ll need 11 for this pattern.
I cut my fusible web sheets a little smaller than my squares just so I wouldn’t get sticky fusible web on my pressing board. This is pretty sticky fusible web! It is advisable to leave the paper backing in place until you’ve cut the circles and are ready to fuse them to your background fabric.
Cutting the Curved Pieces
After fusing your fabric, the next step is to cut your pieces. I found it easiest to cut the half and quarter circle shapes from rectangles and squares. You’ll need 32 – 2 ¾ x 5-inch rectangles and 32 – 2 ¾-inch squares.
Follow along with the video to cut the curves using the 5-inch circle template from the Circle Template Set.
Completing the Whirligig Quilt Blocks and Quilt
I love making blocks that are this fast and easy! On 8 – 10 ½-inch squares, I fused four half-circles along the sides. The other 8 squares have a quarter-circle fused to each corner.
I pieced the blocks together in 4 rows of 4 blocks, making sure to alternate the blocks to create this cool curving effect:
As for stitching the appliqués down, this is entirely up to you. You can do a straight stitch 1/8-inch from the edge and allow the curved edges to fray.
If frayed edges make you itch, then you’re welcome to cover that edge with a thick satin stitch instead. I do advise stabilizing the quilt with tear away stabilizer if you plan to use a very heavy satin stitch as it can distort the fabric.
Personally I was planning to do a straight stitch and to tackle this after the quilt was layered on my frame. But then I started thinking about all the beautiful wide decorative stitches my Janome 8200 can make… and how pretty they would look flowing around these curves.
Yep, I may just have to pull out that machine and play with decorative stitches to add a bit of bling to this pretty baby quilt.
So that’s it for this Whirligig Baby quilt tutorial! If you’d like to find the written pattern, plus the circle template to create it, check out our new Circle Template Set available here.
Let’s go quilt,
Leah Day
1 comment
Looks like a fun one. I love the decorative stitch!