Some pinwheels, an old beauty, and a wee bit of Allietare

While my gifty sewing was in full swing, I had to haul out my old faithful friend here, since it was too much bother to keep switching needles and tension  - I was piecing quilting cotton, and machine-quilting, and assembling heavier-weight fabrics.  With two machines up and running, life got a lot simpler.  This old beauty was my first 'big purchase' after leaving home - I bought it new in 1971, and it was my primary machine until I got my 'new' machine in 1987; it's still my backup when the going gets tough.  It goes forward, backward, and does zigzag.  What more could I want?

Now I'm caught up with Christmas sewing except for a bit of handwork that I can do in the evenings, so I got to a project that I've been wanting to play with for quite a while.  (And as always, I typed 'quilt' right there instead of 'quite' and had to go back and fix it.)  (Is it just me?)
Ever since I saw Chantal's pinwheel blocks, way back last spring sometime, I've been wanting some for my own.  It was the first block I put on my 'Definite' list for RSC2016.  You'd think with all that love and fervor I would have pieced a few already; after all, I've made at least one block of everything else in the patchwork world...
Well, today I finally did it.  I've been cutting most of the components I needed right along - Allietare is generating all kinds of 2" strips, and I've been cutting 3.5" strips all along in anticipation of starting Quilty 365 on January 1st.  (I'll be using 3.5" blocks for backgrounds for my circles.)

I threw a block together real quick, (and there should be a photo of it right here, but my camera apparently ate it, without even a burp...)

then made three more lickety-split.

Because this is one of those block that you look at and think 'yeah, that's nice, you got any snacks?'  Underwhelming on its own.
But put a couple of them together and magic starts to happen.

 Though I'll probably use that first set, there are other ways to lay them out.

And if I had more of them, there are chevrons to be made.  I'll just have to be patient - RSC is coming soon and I'll be up to my collarbones in quilt blocks in no time!

With the pinwheels assembled, I turned to Allietare and threw together a couple more sets of clue 4 units.

Five down, twenty-five to go...
And I got the last of the clue 1 HSTs done, as leader/enders while I was piecing the pinwheels, so I actually reached into my 1.5" squares box and got a couple 4-patches done - you know, my REAL leader/ender project.

 And I've got another long-range, probably leader-ender project in mind.
In this magazine (from Oct 2009),

there's this quilt.

I wants it, preciousss, I wants it, I does.
So, while I'm cutting other pieces for other blocks, I'm going to start cutting a triangle here and there, now and then.

I've got one so far.


Linking with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework, where all us scrappers meet.
And I'll link to Bonnie Hunter's Allietare Monday as soon as the link goes live.
Come and see all the fun!