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.
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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.
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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.
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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!!
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I wanted to also give my pattern testers a shout out. Bonnie, Roberta, and Joanne thank you so much for helping me make this into an understandable pattern. The quilts you make are absolutely beautiful. Thank you a hundred times over. These next quilts are theirs.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.brownbirddesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/roberta_dpwq.jpg?resize=468%2C624&ssl=1)
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