Whimsy Kite: Pinwheel Baby Bonus Quilt Tutorial

When I designed the Whimsy Kite Quilt I was super excited to have it be an exclusive pattern for The Fat Quarter Shop.  You can find the pdf here.  During the process of testing my design, I made test blocks, test strips, and made the entire quilt from the Fat Quarter Shop's kit. I did all that just to be sure that it was written correctly.

Btw, it is written FANTASTIC. The gals at FQS did an awesome job.

Anyhow, there were some scraps left from the kit plus the HST blocks.

So what I decided to do was create a bonus pattern from the blocks and fabrics that are left over from the original pattern kit.

This is the first bonus quilt that I created.

{note I didn't even use all the scraps that were left! more quilts could come.....FQS rocks}

It measures 42" X 42"

These are my 'scraps' from the FQS Whimsy Kite Quilt.

In addition to your scraps, you need the 4 leftover giant half square triangles from the kite quilt. 

Plus the extra green border fabric to be used as the inner border.

The half square triangles should be squared up to all be the same size. My squares measured 15.5"

I arranged my HST in a pinwheel pattern as shown in the picture.

Sew those together. 

Cut 4 green border fabrics 2" X WOF.
Sew on the inner borders.

I sewed top and bottom border and then sides onto the center pinwheel.

With the addtional pieces of fabric I cut rectangles 4.5" wide X WOF.

A - Sub cut those into {8} 4.5" X 6.5"  rectangles

B - Sub cut {4} 4.5" X 4.5 rectangles

Sew these together in this order.

BAAAAB

Make 2.

These become the sides.

Sew them end to end to create the pieced outer border.

Then cut {12} 4.5"X 7.5" pieces.

Sew together end to end.

This becomes the top and bottom borders.

Remember this is scrappy so if the border doesn't fit. Cut off the excess!

This is the left over border fabric from the origin kit.

At 4.5" it is perfect to cut in half at 2.25" for binding!

Here's the top quilted and bound!

I used every scrap I had for the backing as well.

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The second bonus quilt is shown below.

 I used Urban Chicks Swell fabrics.

Since these were my test blocks I didn't have all the extra yardage from a kit.

I improvised and used 2.5" strips.

Piece the large pinwheel.

Cut 4 strips of Bella solid white for inner border fabric 2" X WOF.

Sew on borders.

Next, I took 2.5" X 4.5" strips and sewed them together to form an outer border 2.5" X  31". 

Because this was done with scraps, your project size may vary slightly from mine.

Improvise.

I just measured my quilt top width and cut off the excess from my outer border to make it fit.

I can't wait to get the Swell version from my quilter. I think it's going to be 'sweet'.

I am hoping to make a pdf of the bonus pattern but it's delayed with market coming and secret-ish projects.

In the mean time, stop on over to the Fat Quarter Shop and buy a kit to get started :)

p.s. Don't forget to enter the giveaway for Quiltmaker's Small Quilts!