When I finish working on bereavement quilts for a family, I’m usually left with lots of extra material. It’s hard not to stop at that point, my urge is to use as much of the available material as I can. These shirts and trousers are precious and it is difficult for me to discard them. In the case above, I gave in to my weakness and made the throw out of two leftover shirts and other shirt scraps. Since I had made five quilts for this one family, it was my thank-you gift at the end – a traditional pinwheel throw that could be used by the entire family as needed.
Although this is a simple quilt to make, it does take some concentration to get all the pieces in the right places. I had seen this quilt made in a crazy quilt fashion in which the little pinwheels didn’t stand out and was delighted to see the pattern emerge when careful placing was used. A simple zig-zag quilting pattern was used, leaving the quilt soft and pliable.