Pinwheel variations 1 & 2

I just finished the two Jelly Roll Pinwheel lap quilts that I started the week after Christmas. Variation 1 on the left has dark pinwheels. Variation 2 on the right has light pinwheels.

The jelly rolls were Moda marbles. I happened to have a half yard of lime green Moda marble in my stash, so I decided to use that as a border on Variation One. As I was digging through my stash for a suitable border for Variation Two, I came across a stash of snow dyed fabrics that I dyed two years ago. Just for fun, I decided to use a couple of those pieces as sashing and border for the second quilt. Love it or hate it, it definitely makes for a bold quilt! I think it would have been more successful if some of the pinwheels had stronger contrast, and if I had taken time to specifically position the sashing. Instead, I just blindly sewed whichever strip happened to be in my hand without any consideration. The positive is that I have those two quilt tops completed, and now I can take them off my design wall. On to the next thing!

Five or so years ago, our church bought some second-hand flooring to put in two of the Sunday school classrooms. It is a special, snap-together, shock-absorbing, vinyl tile flooring that is made for dance floors. It is about 1/2″ thick with a grid of sorts underneath that elevates it from whatever it is sitting on. There were about fifty tiles left over that have been sitting in a corner all these years, just too few to cover a whole room, so it was finally decided to get rid of them. I snagged them and put them in my studio today.

I like the idea of tile instead of carpet because I am always dropping straight pins. They would get embedded in the carpet and then skewered my feet (all because I like to be barefoot in the summer). Also, my studio is in a minimally insulated, converted garage with no central air or heat. I rely on space heaters in the winter to make it bearable. Now that there is an air pocket between the concrete slab and the vinyl tiles, I’m hoping the floor won’t feel quite so cold. The extra added bonus is that now my chair rolls very easily to each of my work stations. Just a tiny push with my toe and weee!