Let’s bring joy and hope to the world as we celebrate spring. Gather ‘Round the Maypole is my response to the Island Batik Ambassador challenge for May 2022. The prompt was “Triangle Tricks” which certainly got my mind spinning.

I love triangles in all their forms. I’m sure some of you are yawning as I repeat my heartfelt devotion to half-square triangles, but I also enjoy flying geese, equilateral triangles, half rectangle triangles…so many variations to keep those creative wheels turning!

Designing with Triangles

For the Triangle Tricks challenge, I focused on the image of a spinning pinwheel, which led me to the idea of ribbons twirling around a Maypole. Here is the resulting quilt:

Use the Store Locator to find Island Batik fabrics in your local area. I shop at Sun Valley Quilts, Modern Quilting and 35th Ave Sew & Vac – they all have a good selection and online shopping is available!

I chose the Vintage Lace strip pack as my base fabric palette, and supplemented with additional pink, yellow and green shades for a scrappy finish. Since I started with a strip pack, the design is build around 6″ finished nine patch units.

Gather Round the Maypole triangle blocks

A variety of different triangle blocks come together for the Gather ‘Round the Maypole quilt.

The center pinwheel is created with split nine patch blocks in pink and yellow. I also needed green and yellow blocks for the diagonal sections of the quilt.

Check out this video tutorial and free download for Split Nine Patch blocks:

For the vertical ribbons, I made quarter-square triangle (QST) blocks. The square in the center of the QST block is constructed in the same manner as a double-pinwheel block.

Full instructions for the Gather Round the Maypole quilt are coming soon! Newsletter subscribers will be the first to enjoy the pattern – are you on the list? Sign up here.

Quarter Square Triangle blocks

The design needs a yellow nine patch with just one green half square triangle. There is a right and left version of this block, and believe me, it got turned around several times! Amazing how things can go wrong between the design wall and the sewing machine! But it all turns out beautifully in the end and Jack-the-seam-ripper can go back into a dark corner.

Once all the nine patch blocks are pieced, the quilt comes together in sections. I made the corner units as larger nine patch sections and added the QST sections in between.

Final quilting steps

This quilt was pieced with Aurifil thread and Schmetz needles. I love the industry partners who generously donated the materials used in this quilt!

I chose Hobbs Poly-Down batting which has such a cuddly loft. Leaving the pink triangles unquilted creates a puffy three-dimensional aspect to the design.

How are you celebrating the changing seasons?

More Triangle Tricks quilt designs

See the other Triangle Tricks designs from my fellow Island Batik Ambassadors:

Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs
Megan Best ~ Bestquilter
Pamela Boatright ~ Pamelaquilts
Elizabeth DeCroos ~ Epida Studio
Jennifer Fulton ~ Inquiring Quilter

Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts
Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts
Jane Hauprich ~ Stitch By Stitch Custom Quilting
Reed Johnson ~ Blue Bear Quilts
Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood
Denise Looney ~ For The Love Of Geese
Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights
Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine
Anorina Morris – sameliasmum.com

Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion
Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia
Gail Renna ~ Quilt Haven Threads
Brianna Roberts ~ Sew Cute And Quirky
Michelle Roberts ~ Creative Blonde

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail
Andi Stanfield ~ True Blue Quilts
Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels
Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations
Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt