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  • Writer's pictureCraft Cotton Co

Alice in Wonderland Pinwheel Quilt

Project by Katie Done at The Fabric Squirrel


The Craft Cotton Company have teamed up with the Victoria and Albert Museum to create this beautiful Alice in Wonderland fabric collection. Inspiration has been taken from the original artwork found in the V&A to create 5 prints with all our favourite characters. When I was asked if I could create something to show off the new range, I thought some kind of quilt that could be used for kids tea parties. I wanted something that would be a bit psychedelic so came up with this half square triangle spiral design.


It may look a little complicated if you are new to quilting but I promise it is actually quite simple and is made up of 9 simple panels.


YOU WILL NEED

  • 2 fat quarters (orange, blue)

  • Half metre (purple)

  • Half metre (blue)

  • 1.5 metres of white blender

  • Sewing machine

  • Iron and ironing board

Finished Size = 85cm square

HST = Half Square Triangle

Use 1/34" seam allowance throughout.

Press Seams open.



CUTTING

First you will need to cut all your fabric. You will need the following.


White blender:

3 3/4" squares x 18

4 1/2" squares x 36

Blue Alice:

3 3/4" squares x 4

4 1/2" squares x 8

Blue Cards:

3 3/4" squares x 4

4 1/2" squares x 8


Peach:

3 3/4" squares x 2

4 1/2" squares x 4


Purple:

3 3/4" squares x 8

4 1/2" squares x 16

Binding: 2" x 4 bolt widths (this will be longer than you need so if you have some smaller pieces left you can do 3 bolt widths plus an extra 6").

METHOD


The main technique to this quilt is half square triangles. I will refer to them as HST. There are several ways of coming to the same finish, but I will show you my favourite way. They do end up being slightly too big and I trim them down afterwards. I find this the easiest way to ensure they are accurate.

1. You need to pair up all your coloured squares and white squares of the same size. Draw a diagonal line from one corner to the other. I have some washi tape on my machine as a guide, so I don't need to do this each time.



2. Sew quarter inch either side of the centre line.



3. Cut down the centre line. Open them out and press the seams open.



4. You will end up with two HSTs. Now you need to repeat this with all your squares.



It is easier to do this in a chain.






5. With your smaller squares arrange them with the matching colours like below and sew them into a four patch. Trim this down to 4"



6. Trim your large squares down to 4". Now lay your larger HST and centre square as per below and sew together. Repeat this for all 9 squares.



7. Lay out your squares with the purples in the corners and orange in the centre. Sew these together and give it a good press. I have uses Heritage premium wadding from Bosal and the white blender as the backing.



8. Layer your backing, wadding and quilt top. Smooth it out really well and baste. I always use curved pins to baste my quilts.



9. I spent a while trying to work out how to quilt it but decided on a circular design starting from the centre and working my way out. I haven't marked it out, just gone by eye but you could if you wanted to ensure it was super accurate. I have used white thread for the quilting and throughout the project.



10. Now you just need to trim and bind your quilt and you are done. Most people have a preferred method for binding. I rarely do mine by hand (or they would never get finished). I usually sew the binding to the back and then press forward and top stitch it on the front.



Here are some more pictures of the finished quilt with my mini model aged 7 months for a size guide. We also ordered an afternoon tea from a local company called Graze Grantham recently, so I took the opportunity to take some pictures. It was a delicious treat, and I would highly recommend them!



To see more from Katie, visit her on Instagram @thefabricsquirrel


Made by Katie Done for The Craft Cotton Company 2020

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