Dutch windmills -part 1-

For the past 3 weeks I have been slowly packing up my house because soon a lot of builders are basically moving in and I am moving out for several weeks. So my house has been in a bit of a chaotic state with boxes everywhere and the general air of unrest has been getting to me. Possibly also the fact that in a weeks time I have to pack up my sewing machine for the next 4 to 8 weeks (did anybody say something about early onset of cold turkey ??).

But mostly because of the chaos around me I started to grave the neatness and orderliness of foundation paper piecing. Isn't it odd how everyday events inform one's creative process.

You might  remember my stash note 79 where I shared with you the new collection 'Ravena' by Dear Stella. This is the only fabric pile that was left on my fabric shelve this week as everything else has been moved to the loft (you don't want to know how many bin bags...).  I left it because I thought I need something to keep me away from the packing on occasion.

I have been contemplating for weeks what to make with this fabric and moved sort of back and forwards between churn dash blocks and triangles. But then I saw the front cover image of Ayumi's book 'Patchwork Please'  with its cute windmill pin cushions. I admire Aymui's style and I am sure this book is fantastic which is why it is on my wish list. Although the fabric pattern is inspired by India it does remind me a lot of Holland, of dutch tiles and windmills. So I drew a paper pieced pattern in a larger size than the pin cushion (I don't know how Aymui does the windmills but I assume it is also paper pieced).

That done I got onto the photocopier and copied 40 for starters that then quickly turned them into this.

And later on into this:

And this is exactly what the doctor had prescribed. I love the effect the interchanging windmill blades in solid and pattern have on the overall quilt design which I can easily imagine from the above layout. I needed the preciseness of the paper piecing process to keep my sanity this week. Sadly I won't be able to finish this before I have the pack up the rest of my belongings but it is nice to know that when I am going to be able to start again that I have something I can dive right into.

If anybody is interested then I will provide a download of my paper piecing block. The block is 9" in finished form.