I have been concentrating on stitching up pinwheels from that huge pile of trapezoids in my stash. Pictured here is the pile upon which I stitched triangles to the end. It took 5-1/2 hours to clip them all apart and press the seams, and to stack them up into sets of four pieces.
I recently was asked to teach some beginner quilters, so I nade some stiletto tools from bamboo skewers for them. I used polmer clay to make a topper, and used a wooden spool wrapped with thread for decoration. It gives just enough weight to the top for it to handle well, and keeps it from getting hidden under my fabric as I sew. Two of my favorite uses is to help me separate fabrics from a pile of cut pieces, and to help me keep my seams aligned and facing the correct direction while I sew. There is no scratching of my machine bed or damage to the machine if a needle should accidently hit it.
I have stitched up 55 blocks now, but have barely started on the pile, so there will be many more to go. Pictured below are the steps to creating a block:
A final pressing and the block is done. All seams were pressed to the dark. Sorry about the colors which in the last pictures got reversed--I turned the block when I stitched it and got the seam on the wrong side. It didn't matter--the block finished up the same. My blocks finish at 8-inches. I've done some sample sets with my EQ software, and believe that an on-point set looks the best. Hopefully I will soon have some nice quilt tops to share. 