Pinwheels made easy

I'm using a technique to make pinwheels that I've seen online several times now, and I have to say it is so easy and a big time saver.  You start with 2 squares - any size you want as long as they are the same.

 

 

I'm using a charm pack from my stash called Blueberry Park by Karen Lewis (Robert Kaufman) that I bought sometime during the past year. Maybe on the guild bus trip last fall? And I cut 5" squares from a dotted black and white to pair up with the charms.

 

Place the squares right sides together and sew a quarter inch seam all the way around the 4 sides.

 

Press and then cut diagonally from corner to corner - twice.

 

Press the pinwheel sections open and trim off the dog ears. I pressed toward the darks on all of them.

 

Arrange into a pinwheel and stich the sections together.  I pressed the center as a "swirl" so that it lays flat, but forgot to photograph it. 

 

This technique works for ANY size starting squares so you can make big pinwheels or little pinwheels. These started with 5" charms and ended as a 6" pinwheel. And it saves a ton of "squaring up" after sewing lots of half square triangles from squares.

 

Since I am not following a specific layout for these pinwheels and the don't have to fit into a certain size spot in a quilt I didn't care what size they ended up, as long as they are all the same. I'll still use the HST technique when it gives me more accuracy for a specific pattern. But it's sure nice to learn another way of doing something.