It’s week 2 of my Fidget Quilt project for Alzheimer’s patients.  As I mentioned last week, I’m participating in a weekly challenge event on Facebook with a group of talented quilters.  Unfortunately my team has been eliminated from the weekly ranking, but I’m still going to be making my blocks as an individual so that I can donate my final product.

This week’s challenge required two elements.  First, it needs to contain an element that requires two hands to maneuver. Second, it needs to contain an element featuring fabric manipulation.  The second element did not need to be functional.

I decided to create a block with fabric doors, closed with a series of buttons:

I never ever made buttonholes before.  But when I bought my Singer 66, it came with a Singer Buttonholer tool.  (Subscribe to this blog if you want to see my upcoming review of this amazing tool!)  I dusted it off and tried it for the first time today.  My first set of buttonholes turned out pretty well, if I don’t say so myself.

When you open the fabric doors, it reveals a 3D element.

There is a 3D pinwheel inside!  The fabric triangles are carefully folded and sewn into the seams for added dimension.

As you can see from this angled view, the pinwheel is only tacked down on the side seams.  You can put your fingers underneath the fabric layers.

I coordinated the colours with my week 1 block, using the same brown and pink ribbon to tie the themes together.  All the fabrics in this block except for the pink fabric on the doors are leftovers from other quilting projects.

What will Week 3 have in store?  Find out next Saturday!