Pinwheel baby quilt - part 1: The front Panel

I recently spotted and fell in love with the Mon Ami charm pack by Moda. I often find patterns or colours I don't like in a charm pack which puts me off buying, or using (there is a stock of at least 4 charm packs at the back of the cupboard somewhere). But there isn't a fabric I dislike in this pack.

Inspired in my local quilting shop I decided that I didn't want to just go with squares but instead challenge myself with something a bit more effective.

I decided to go for this pinwheel design.

I started by cutting all the squares in the charm pack in half diagonally, so that each square gives you 2 triangles. For a quilt this size you actually only need to choose and cut 18 squares from the charm pack. I then cut some 5" strips of cream and then cut these into 5" squares and again cut these in half diagonally, to give 2 triangles. 

I set myself up with my machine in front of me, a stack of white triangles to my left and a stack of patterned triangles to the right. I then worked my way through the pile, taking one cream triangle and one patterned triangle and sewing them together to make a square.

With a lovely pile of now squares, I set to with the iron - this has to be my top tip! Ironing really a makes a difference!!

 I then experimented with laying these squares out to form 2 by 2 squares.

 Once I decided on the layout, I stitched the squares together in pairs.

I then lined the seams up to complete the 'bigger square'.

 Here again I got the iron out - press the seams to prevent bobbling and wherever possible always iron the seams to the side where the fabric is darkest (e.g so they lie against the back of the patterns fabric rather than the cream) as this will stop them being visible through lighter fabrics. 
I then lay these 'big squares' out on the bed to get an overall layout I was happy with and then set about stitching the 'big squares' into 3 rows of 3, taking care to line up seams as accurately as possible.

Again I gave them all a press here - it makes lining seams up easier, and set about joining the 3 rows together to make the 'square' centre panel.

At this stage I took a little trip to my local quilting shop (Simply All Sorts), with the completed centre panel neatly folded in my bag to search for an appropriate border fabric. I settled on this pink with cream striped through it - All In A Day by Anni Downs – Peach/Pink Stripe.

 

I then added a strip of cream to each side and will finish the front with another round of the pink. 

To be continued ...

Keep you eye out for part 2 in which I will make the back piece and do all the top stitching detail.