Jinny Beyer Frightens Me

A little over a year ago, my Aunt Kathleen asked me if I was willing to make a quilt for her. I was hesitant at first, because making something at somebody's request puts a different set of expectations on the finished product. In my head it does anyway. When I make a quilt of my own choosing, it's made with the notion that I can give it to whomever I choose (or keep it for our house) when I'm done with it.  But having somebody else asked me? Oy. Nerve-wracked issues galore. Of course the issues are in my head and the final - or near final result as is currently the case - will be just fine. Even very good!

After talking her down from a queen or king sized quilt to a lap size, she sent the quilt kit from her home in Phoenix to me in the Mini Apple.

There it was...one of the scariest things I'd ever seen. A Jinny Beyer pattern and accompanying fabric.  How scared was I? So ridiculously scared that I put it off for a year. Jinny Beyer is an amazing quilter and designer. There's a reason she's so revered. I'm sure Jinny herself is sweet as can be, but her patterns frighten me sometimes. Those diamond shaped strip sets (cut at 1 15/16", no less!). Those bias seams. And scariest of all, those mitered border prints sewn to the quilt to give the illusion of a seamless print. To paraphrase Whoopi Goldberg, "Dan...you in danger girl."

A week ago, I finally got down to it and started cutting the strip sets and sewing them together. Though it was time consuming aligning the strips and marking them on the quarter inch to make sure those points come out well, it was worth it. They look so good! Of course, there were a few that look just okay, but you don't get to see those. :)

I cut the remaining half square triangles, making sure to handle them delicately so as not to stretch the bias at all. I pressed them in half along with the sashing to make sure they were attached evenly by matching the centerpoints.

Then it was all just a matter of sewing the halves together, again being mindful of the bias seams on both halves. It wasn't long before I had a pile of 16 blocks. Now to sew them together in quarters.

And after sewing together four of these quadrants...

...I had a completed center! I love the pinwheel patterns. All I've got to do now is the borders. Four of them. I'm still nervous about that part as it's something new to me, but what all of this has proven to me is that my fears thus far were virtually all for naught. It just took me out of my comfort zone, and that's rarely fun for me. This, however, proved to be pretty fun. What I've learned is that Jinny Beyer isn't scary at all. I'm just a scaredy cat!

The secondary pinwheel pattern created by joining the quadrants is beautiful, even if it put Audrey and Rita to sleep in the background. After the borders, it's off to Millie P's for quilting, then bound and off to Phoenix!

Sometime in the near future, I'm going to create a quilt out of this lovely fabric...

It's called Fresh Lilacs by Maywood Studios, and it's a perfect set of prints for a friend of mine who really loves lilac, green and black together. Winner, winner...tofu dinner?!