Originally Posted by Berta48
OK I will try to explain better.I am new to quilting so I really have a hard time understanding things.ESPECIALLY THE MATH.
I made a scrapy quilt with no sashing.Then I cut 6in outside borders and sewed top and bottom border first USEING A 1/4 IN SEAM. then went to add the sides.they were short about 6in.So I thought I could put a pinwheel in each corner to make up for it.
But I can't seem to get them the right size.
I use two pieces of fabric squares the same size sew allfour sides and cut at 45 angle twice and get my four pieces for the pinwheel.But the pinwheel is always to big!
The beauty of this technique is you can cut down your HST to the size you need. So in your first post you said your border was 6 1/2 but your second post you said it was 6" wide.
For 6 1/2" wide:
after you take your two squares and sew all around and do your two diagonal cuts measure your resulting HST with a square ruler. You want those units to be 3 1/2" square. Once they are that size, make your pinwheels and attach them to each end of your side borders and finish as normal
For 6" wide border strips:
Same as above only your HST need to measure 3.25 each.
I'm sorry I am only familiar with the technique you use to make the HST I have not actually done it myself so I can not tell you what size you need to make the squares. Personally, I would unsew the pinwheels you said that were too big and cut the HST down to the needed size and then reassemble the pinwheel. Actually, now that I think about it the nature of the pinwheel block you couldn't you just cut it down to size while it is still assembled? It's been a while since I made any pinwheels.