I was caught in a weak moment, apparently.
Listener Kitty had sent me the link to a recent Missouri Star Quilt Company video on the Disappearing Pinwheel. I subscribe to their feed so I'm not sure how I missed this one, but miss it I did. Thanks, Kitty, for pointing it out...I think!
The video shows a twist on the concept of the Disappearing 9-Patch that involves a very simple process for making a pinwheel, and then making that pinwheel "disappear," enabling you to make two different blocks. I thought it was a cute idea so I posted it to Twitter.
And that's when all the trouble started.
Dang, that @KnittyAJ and her enthusiasm! Now, after a series of tweets extending over a couple of hours, several of us are joining in on a Disappearing Pinwheel Quilt-Along. Sort of, anyway. Some of us have Monday, January 20th, off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so we're (as we like to do) spending it sewing and tweeting and tweeting and sewing. So those of us who feel like playing along will be spending at least a portion of our day making a Disappearing Pinwheel. It seems like most of us are leaning towards block version #1, but if you'd like to join in, you can do either variation or any variation you come up with yourself.
For me, this fits in with one of my 2014 Quilty Resolutions to be conscientious about using my stash. This is a fantastic stash project. The project is geared towards layer cakes (packs of 10" squares). I don't have any layer cakes in my stash, but I do have a stack of 10" squares I've cut from scraps over the last couple of years so I'll start there. I may cut some additional squares from my stash as well--I've just got to do some math to figure out how many squares I'll need in the long run, and what kind of variety I've got in my current collection.
So yes, an unexpected new project is now getting shoe-horned into the mix. But I'm looking forward to it--and I'm still making good progress on my other goals so I'm good to go. Isn't that the fun of quilting, after all?
So, check out the videos below and see if maybe you'd like to play along. (If the videos don't appear in your feed, just go to YouTube and search for "Disappearing Pinwheel" and it'll turn up.) There isn't actually a time limit on this quilt-along. My personal deadline is that I'd like to have a top pieced within the next three weeks. Depending on how big a quilt I decide to make, I might send it out for quilting. Could be a donation quilt, could be another dorm/apartment quilt for an offspring, could be something for a guest room bed, or could be something I put on a shelf until I need a gift somewhere down the road....
By the way, @knittyAJ is another podcaster, if you're not familiar with her. You can find her over at The Quilting Pot. Go give her some love--even if I'm gnashing my teeth in her general direction for getting me involved in something new! :-)