Square Dance Quilt

Some of my favourite quilts at the moment are coming from Jo at Bearpaw and Bearpaw, and I have been inspired by her Whirly Gig quilt.  We exchanged a few email as to how she had made it (using a template and cutting each piece to the template) and I worried about keeping tabs on which piece goes where (I don't have a design wall, more of a design bed!)

Then I had a real DOH! moment - I've made two of these before!!!

 

Jo's method uses a irregular trapezium shape (different definitions for US and UK English!), and each block is 8 of these, 4 the same fabric, making one Whirly Gig, and 4 different fabrics making 1/4 each of another Whirly Gig. (Shown here outlined in black)


The method I used in the past uses a square template resulting in square block of 4 fabrics (shown in yellow).  I think the method I have used will suit me better as I don't have a place to lay out the blocks to make sure each one is correct in relation to it's neighbours.

I LOVE Jo's random fabrics (although I think they are all from one designer) but I don't have the confidence to choose fabrics from my stash and get that effect.


 I looked a number of 'families' of fabrics:

 and in the end the batik dots won.

To start with, these need to be pieced into a basic flimsy, and pressed

Before I do the next step I need to add a border, so part two will follow after a trip to a fabric shop!