Quiltmaker's July-August magazine will be coming out this week. The Scrap Squad's assignment for this magazine is designer Barbara Cline's SPINOUT. This is a paper pieced pattern that uses two colors of fabric at a time to make a triangle block. The various color combinations produce a great looking, contemporary, quilt by arranging the colors into the spokes of the Spinout. The triangles are sewn into rows that are then sewn into an overall tessellation pattern.
Look for other Quiltmaker Scrap Squad Members Spinouts on their Blogs
This is my version of SPINOUT, in a scrappy way, before it was quilted
How I Made my Spinout
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| Pattern Outline |
First I copied the pattern outline, colored and numbered it with the pattern numbers 1 - 12. This would tell me how the different color combinations should be laid out.
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I eventually changed the yellow colors to browns |
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| Browns & Greens |
The next job was to select the fabrics to be used. I choose browns, greens, salmon to brick reds, and a neutral for the background.
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| Greens, Reds & Neutrals |
The pattern calls for 264 paper copies of the triangle foundations. I purchased the lightest weight paper that would feed well through my ink jet printer (20 lb), printed the pages and then rough cut the triangle patterns apart.
At first, I thought, using the guide for the 12 different combinations of Units 1 through 12, I could mark the colors and how many I would need of each color combination. But, because later, I did not like the look of everything being very scrappy and the Sprinouts were not as crisp as I wanted them to be, I eventually started making all 6 spokes of the Spinout from one fabric and liked it much better
I made a pattern of each part of the triangle by adding an additional paper to the side that was cut in two. This allowed my to determine how much fabric would be needed for pattern and pattern 2.
The fabric for the two correct colors are placed behind the paper pattern, leaving about 1/4" over the sewing line. I usually would fold it back to check that enough fabric was behind the pattern piece. Then I would stitch on the sewing line.
After the block is sewn, sprayed with starch and pressed, I would then trim the block accurately.
Note how the finished block has the color on the opposite side as is marked on the pattern front. Because in paper piecing you always put your fabric back to the back of the pattern when sewing. This will reverse how the pattern is printed, but allows you to always see the sewing line on top of the pattern.
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| Finished block will be opposide of pattern front A group of trimmed blocks, ready to sort and start building the rows of the quilt  I sorted the different color combinations into groups  Then using a flannel backed table cloth for a design wall (on bed below), and using the colored outline from the first step, I put the triangles together to make the Spinout pattern.  Next, the paper was removed and the Spinout triangles were laid out on the design wall (now on the floor).  Then I picked up the triangles,by row, pinned them together and sewed them into rows. There are 12 rows in this throw.  I press all seams open. This really helped in matching the points and distributed the fabric bulk evenly.  For the border, I choose a brick and black colored strip 1 1/2" for the inner border and a brick color , small black print 3 1/2" for the outer border. I thought it needed something else, and found some very flat, black 1/4" braid in my stash. I washed a test piece of the braid to check for colorfastness. It passed fine, so I then sewed on the braid, by hand, over the seam between the two borders.  Choosing a backing was the next step for me. As I thought about it, because I had so many left over triangle pieces, I desided that a Spinout Tic-Tac-Toe game would be a fun idea. So instead of a one fabric backing, I pieced mine.  Added a green border, then a brick red border around the center. I then sewed some of the leftover triangles into rows to make the backing be longer. And finally added a wider green and neutral border to make the backing large enough to cover the quilt top.  For the game pieces, I sewed one of the 'A" pattern pieces to a paper pieced Spinout triangle, right sides together, leaving an opening at the bottom for turning. Clipped the corners, turned and stuffed with fiber fill and slip stitched the opening closed.  I made 5 game pieces with red for the main color and 5 pieces with green for their main color. These represent the "X" and "O" for the game. Then made a small bag with a drawstring to hold the game pieces so they would stay together  After the quilting, ready for a Spinout Tic-Tac-Toe game  I selected a brick colored thread for the quilting and a small swirly quilting pattern to be machine quilted. My Spinout quilt was machine quilted by Glenda Wilkinson of the Fabric Shed.    All said and done, I like my Spinout Quilt! |
