Aurora: New York Beauties Block 11

Yeah, I promised I’d do these blocks every two weeks, but it was a day I wasn’t weeping over Dad and stuff, and I could breathe and the sun was out and the white snow atop the mountain in the distance was so beautiful, and it was time to sew. It’s good to have days like this every once in a while. Plus I still had some awesome Valentine Candy for snacks (Trader Joe’s Xs and Os anyone?), so that must have been an omen to get out the fabric.

I skipped way ahead in the line-up and went for Aurora, the eleventh block in my New York Beauties quilt. Maybe I just wasn’t up to some fancy piecing, or I loved the blues, or what, but again, I used freezer-paper piecing and still liked it.

Rhonda wrote to say that the older freezer paper seems better than the newer stuff, and in her case, it can sometimes shrink slightly, so press it once down onto your ironing board, just to be safe. Carol wrote to say she was able to get five uses from her freezer paper: love to get comments giving me tips. I realize the last post was sort of intense, so this one will be lighter.

I use Painter’s Palette Solids from Paintbrush Studio (you can buy them here). Good goods. Full stop.

I’m starting to make a color card for this project, adding in the colors I use, in case you want to duplicate this. I am going the full color range for this quilt, but not full-strength. Some colors are muted (with gray added to them) and some colors are lightened (white added to them). The muted colors will keep this from looking less like a paintbox exploded (no laughing out there, yes I know it’s still pretty colorful). Here’s the card, so far. I will keep the card updated on online, where the pattern lives (not here).

To get your free download, go to the pattern, and click on the word Preview (in the pink circle). It’s also a way for you to get the color numbers of colors that work together.

This is where I started. My printer was having fits, so I cut the freezer paper slightly smaller than a page of card stock I had and taped it to the card to send it through. Then I arranged colors of my fabrics, trying out what I wanted to combine.

Then I folded the creases in from the front, then from the back (another tip from Rhonda).

Rolling, rolling, rolling. (You have to be of a certain age to appreciate this.)

I use two sizes of rotary cutters for those curves (little for the inside, larger for the lower curve).

Peel back the center papers to join the B1 piece to the B2 piece (same on all the blocks).

This has a narrow inner ring, unlike Block One, Wild Sunflower. You can sew the ring either to the rays or to the Inner Center Piece. I make marks in the center for this short distance, so there are three pinning points.

For the lower curve of the rays to the Outside Corner, I do three different marks, so there are five pinning points.

I’m getting ambidextrous, but I still prefer the pieced rays on top when I sew.

Home stretch.

And although this is a wonky photo, I did evenly trim them to 9 1/2.” Two are done in no time at all.

My chart for keeping track. They are all in their places, with colorful faces!

Reminder: the coupon is good until Leap Day, February 29th, if you want to make some, too.

PS: I carted home several journals and photo albums from the clean-out of my parents’ apartment, which made me realize that the little photo, above — a composite of my monthly markers on Instagram — is like a type of journal for 2023. Good memories!