Pinwheel UFO top is now finished!

I started this UFO this past October .. about 2 months on the calendar.  I do apologize for the weird photo.  My sewing room isn't very wide and I needed to use a wide-angle lens on my cell phone to get the entire quilt in the frame.

It's from a pattern called "Pinwheel Quarters" by Mary Jane Best.  I had a number of her patterns in my UFO bin.  This particular series was designed to take advantage of Fat Quarters ... a new concept in pre-cuts at the time (circa 1995).  Additionally, the patterns are written with the brand new quilter in mind .... which tended to drive me nuts.

However, having worked with a number of her patterns already this year, I could see that all I really needed was an entire boatload of pinwheels, which meant more than an enormous amount of half square triangles.

When I need a LOT of half square triangles all made from the same fabric, I like to use the strip grid method.  My quilting friend, Jan Wickell, has written a tutorial about this method and it's the one I used for this quilt top.

The reason I chose this pattern is because I had a bunch of half square triangles/pinwheels left over from a previous project.  I wanted to use the leftovers up.

Oh, and let it not be said that I'm not ambitious!  Now, I could have used the leftover pinwheels for a smaller quilt (this pattern allows for two sizes: 45"x55" or 50"x60") but oh no!  not me!  I like BIGGER quilts.  All I needed to do was make MORE half square triangle pinwheels!  What could be more simple?

(I'd insert of video of my banging my head against the wall but I neglected to film it).

MILLIONS of half square triangle later ... and THOUSANDS of pinwheels later ... I finally made all I needed for this bigger quilt top.  How much bigger?  Well, it finished at 70"x95" .. which is inconveniently between a twin and a double.  Obviously, my math was somewhat incorrect in my calculations.   BUT .. it is what it is and that's the size it's going to be!

I'm not majorly thrilled with the placement of the colors ... and I must take full blame for that.  The pattern doesn't specify what colors nor how many of each color nor how to place the pinwheels once they've been constructed .. you're kinda on your own.  Which is a horrid place for *me* to be when it comes to random placement of color ... or deciding what the heck I should do with the colors that I have.

I made a mock-up in Electric Quilt to get a feel for where the colors should go.  I was constrained by the fact that I had a certain number of colors ... and that was it.  I needed to use what I had (because I sure wasn't going to make any MORE half square triangles or pinwheels!)  I probably should have taken more time just to look at the color placement .. maybe parts of it wouldn't have been so blocky.  But .. eh .. shrug ... I was impatient to get the top sewn.

Therefore, it is what it is.  It's not a complete disaster but it's not a fantastic arrangement either.  Once quilted, it will function quite nicely as a quilt. :-)