PICTURE THIS: A country girl from New Mexico ending up in the heart of downtown Chicago by sheer chance. Now I consider myself somewhat urbanized. I lived in Phoenix for a few years and currently live in Tucson. Traveling is something that I love to do by myself and with others. I no longer use the phrase “I’m gonna head to town” mainly because now I live in town (I love that my parents say it). The meetings that I went to were right next to the O’Hare Airport so I did not have a chance to see much of the city. On one of my sleepless nights I googled the area because I took a suitcase full of quilts (including this Double Pinwheel Quilt) with me and thought just maybe I will be able to get some nice photos of these quilts. I noticed there was a park with some cool sculptures in the downtown area and decided this would be the place I would go to. Yesterday, the last day of meetings, we finished up a little early and I thought, perfect I would be able to do this. So I left my small bag of clothing at the front desk of the hotel and took my large suitcase with me and “Ubered” to a pancake house right next to the park.

My mouth dropped with amazement in what I saw. The height of so many large beautiful buildings. Subways above roads and bridges that allowed boats to move under, right between skyscrapers. I literally had my head out of the window looking up into the sky being the total “tourist”.  There I was walking across streets and up and down stairs lugging this large red suitcase. I am sure I looked totally crazy and the only reason why I cannot confirm that is because I was not looking at people’s reactions to me. Because I was too busy looking at the city backdrop. An hour and a half was my time limit to spend there. My flight was at 5 and the time to get back to the airport area would double because of traffic. Something I had not added to my original time calculations. There was a very sweet German lady that stopped to look at one of the quilts that I had hung up and talked a little, and I was so sorry that I didn’t have more time to talk her. Yes, I make my own insanity.   

The Double Pinwheel Quilt

This Double Pinwheel Quilt is long overdue for its final pics. If you want to read and download the pattern for this quilt CLICK HERE. (There I talk about the pattern and fabric a little more in depth.) I have fallen deeply in love with Charleston fabrics by Amy Sinibaldi and all of the Art Gallery Fabrics. Now I really want their Christmas line called Little Town.  The homes are so cute, I am thinking homes or building might be her thing, but we shall see. Since my last post, I sent this quilt out to be long-arm quilted by My Quilt Diet and she did a lovely job. She alternated her quilting in each pinwheel. Making lines in some, swirls in others, and circles in others. I am so pleased with how it turned out. She is an exceptional quilter.

The Quilt Back & Binding

My choice for binding is a gingham in Amy’s Les Petits line. It complements the front and back of the quilt perfectly. I went a little crazy on the back, picking the dark blue magnolia fabric called Magnolia Nightfall. I really wanted to see the fabric prints, so I picked a larger square and added points to each center side making it into a star. Then I made different size variations of this design. I was able to use a lot of my scraps. Luckily, I had to order more fabrics because I had some of my quilt math wrong, so now I still have some pineapple and house fabric that I will cherish in my stash. It was so much fun sewing with Amy Sinibaldi fabrics and creating the Double Pinwheel Quilt and pattern. I hope you like them, too. Thank you AGF for providing your lovely fabrics for this project!!