Second Wednesday in June means the second block of my New York Beauties and since it has a lot of green in it, I went with Cool Rays. I used variegated greens from dark to light in between the rays, just for fun. Because this series is about having fun, right?
STATS: 9-inch blocks, finished Yes, the rays are a bit wonky on some blocks. The perfect is the enemy of the good, as I used to tell my Freshman English classes.
I made the rays on this block twice, because I neglected to follow this one rule:
Yeah, duh. I printed out the first one at 97%. Close, but not close enough. It was a nice set of rays, too.
Fun times: the spliced outer corner pattern from Wild Sunflower (block #1) is the same for all the blocks, so I just used it again.
Splicing action needed.
Nice work. I had a question from a reader about the paper I use. It’s vellum, and from what she wrote back, it may be hard to find in a ream. I’ve seen it in smaller packages, so hopefully if you want that, you can find it.
Auditioning fabrics. Notice the range of greens. I tried to color them on the pattern from lighter to darker, too.
I took a scrap of my paper, traced off the two different sizes of my rays very loosely, and used that as a template to cut out fabrics. Since I’m using solids, there is no right or wrong side.
Progress. I always work from left to right.
Cut your arc on the bias, to give it a chance for ease around that outer edge.
I cut out two arcs because I didn’t know which one I would like. No, they aren’t sewn in yet, just draped.
I press in four creases and pin. I also do better if the convex is on the bottom and the concave is on the top, although I keep trying it the other way, which leads to use of the seam ripper. You can pin as much as you want to. No rules.
Ta-Done!
I took them outside to play.
My New York Beauties pattern, which includes this block, is available for download in my PayHip Shop.
Every Wednesday in June I’ll put up another block, and take down the previous. I guess I’m going through withdrawal after Heart’s Garden. But I want a 9-inch block. Most blocks are 8 inches. So there’s some splicing to do on a couple of pieces. But really–any project goes faster if it’s bigger blocks, right?
So you can put up with splicing together a couple of pieces? In thinking about the New York Beauty block…I mean there are a billion New York Beauty blocks out there on the web, free, in patterns, in a book, in several books. We must really love New York Beauty blocks, I think.
Let’s just start with one step. One block: Wild Sunflower. I did have fun naming all my blocks. You’ll see all the names in the pattern. Blocks? Names? Yes, I didn’t really stop playing around until I had designed eight blocks, and then I was tired (see cartoon, above). They aren’t fancy-schmancy with flying geese and everything. (THAT book has already been written.) But if you just want a fun June project, here ‘ya go. You can always save the patterns for later, if you are already up to here (makes motion at eyeballs) with lists of quilting projects.
Confession: I used to hate FPP: Foundation Paper Piecing. Then I took a class at QuiltCon from the Pride and Joy Quilting lady, Verushka Zarate, and a big lightbulb went on inside my head. This is her trick of ripping away the seam allowance paper if you don’t need it (but sometimes you do). She has an online course, if she isn’t appearing in person somewhere close to you.
And my trick is to draw the outside corner seam allowance 1/4″ past the pattern, so you have some scooch room when trimming up. Just place the 9-1/4″ mark on each end of the arc, then trim.
Wild Sunflower, done. And I actually had fun! I titled this series New York Beauties, and then subtitled it “for Barbara.” She’s my daughter and was born in New York and would live there the rest of her life, if she could–it’s such a strong attraction. So I think of her when I’m working on this.
Totoro and Maya are helping out
Thanks to all who entered in the drawing for some Sew Sassy. I actually found extra spools, so I chose four winners. Check your email box for the email around noon. Tomorrow I’m going to sleep in!
Just breathe…then quilt!
UPDATE: This was a free pillow series that ran in June 2022. Now there is a full quilt pattern. More information on the New York Beauties page, including links to tutorials for all the blocks, and information about how to buy the pattern.
This weighty world needs a tender, light touch this week, so I thought I’d finish up my Heart’s Garden with you today.
Heart’s Garden in my garden, with the flowers of the silk oak in bloom above it.
I thought this quilt might be a fun place to try some embellishments, including these wooden buttons I purchased at a quilt show from a booth with Japanese fabrics, patterns and notions.
The birds now have eyes.
I quilted around a heart shape, trying this out.
Sew Sassy thread is a quilting thread developed by Jane Sassaman with Superior Threads. Since it is polyester, it doesn’t fray out as badly as floss when I’m stitching with it, and leaves a line like 3 strands of embroidery floss.
This is me, ordering colors online (and on sale) so I can do some more stitching. I’ve picked up spools here and there over the last few years. Obviously I have a couple extra: one in pink and one in spring green. Leave a comment below and I will pick two winners from the comments and send them out.
One of my constant helpers at the computer. The other one is Totoro.
I was able to cross off a couple of more things this week. No way I’m going to get this all done by the end of June, but it’s okay. Time for good vibes to go out into our fragile world.
Recently on the PBS NewsHour, they had a discussion how many people are going online to try and back up Ukranian digital assets before they might be destroyed. In the middle of this serious business, I noticed that behind the librarian from Stanford was a Bernina sewing machine and a serger. Even in the hardships around us, we can find common ground.
I would be remiss if I didn’t let you know that Affinity by Serif is having a 50% off sale. I had my husband download Photo for his computer today (steal at about $27) and then had my daughter download both Designer and Photo for her computer. It even got a mention this week in the Craft Industry Alliance newsletter this week, as another way to get your digital artwork made.
So, this is the last of Heart’s Garden. I will post photos from our other makers in a future post, as I so appreciate all the beautiful quilts they are making, and believe they are worth letting you know about. I’ll have some time in the next little while to do more hand-stitching on this quilt, so I decided not to rush for a blog deadline. It will evolve and change, but I don’t feel like I have to do too much. . . just enough fun stitches to make me happy.
The pattern is up on my PayHip shop. I will leave Part 5 (heart border) up in my shop for another week or so, but the other patterns have been merged into the full pattern (I hope you were all able to grab them when they came out). Since there are tons of photos and illustrations, and PayHip has a download limit, I broke the pattern into two parts. Be sure to download both segments.
Affinity Photo helped me try this out in a different color.
UPDATE: GIVEAWAY FINISHED. Leave a comment if you want to win a spool of Sew Sassy Thread (US domestic only). I’ll pick two winners this week. Then take a breath, and quilt!
photos taken at the California Air Resources Board, Riverside, California sculpture is titled: Spatial Echoes of Breath, by Tomás Seraceno, 2021
Title of Sculpture: There Are Many Idioms About Breathing And Yet by Kameelah Janan Rasheed, 2021
Since this photoshoot was at a facility that studies the quality of our California air, it was fitting that the idea of breath, or breathing, or air, was prominent in their public art all around the building. We toured the building, picked up the swag from the vendors and displays in the parking lot, the solar panels overhead shading us from the sun. Rasheed’s artist’s statement includes this line: “As a meditation on pacing and temporality, the artwork is a form of preparedness for the hard work ahead.”
Pacing — a steady pace? Don’t overreach? Don’t run faster than you have energy for? Keep up the pace?
Temporality— the state of existing within or having some relationship with time. Lived time (as opposed to clock time or objective time). Temporality is a term often used in philosophy to express the way time is understood, often as a straightforward procession of past, present, and future.
Some background: Love us or hate us, we here in Southern California are keenly aware of our air, and the effects that pollution has on our health. Too many of us live in communities polluted by automobile exhaust that combines with the moist air that comes in off the ocean: smog. Some communities are polluted by idling train engines. We have seen a distinct uptick in air pollution due to our online shopping habits from the pandemic. An increase of warehouses built at the eastern edge of our city, only a few miles from our home means the freeways are now clogged with semi-trucks bearing goods from the ports to the ocean of warehouses that have been built in this area in the last few years.
I have an asthma inhaler in my bathroom drawer; today in the exhibits in the parking lot, one vendor displayed about 10 of these devices, encouraging us toward cleaner driving, cleaner air, and an awareness of our temporality. Keep up the pace. But maybe…move a little faster.
About a year ago, I felt as if I were drowning. I couldn’t keep up the pace. I felt disconnected from time, certainly an effect of the pandemic in our lives. I know I wasn’t alone in these feelings. I tacked a giant calendar on the wall of our garage, and took to marking it off one day at a time. Keeping track. I pared down all interactions and responsibilities to almost nothing. I was choking in sadness, bad air, political pollution, weary to the bone. I am usually the biggest Pollyanna you’ll every see, but at that time there was no breath in me.
When we are stressed, we often say Breathe in, Breathe out. Take in good, let go of that which is exhausted. Find fresh, expel the stale. I decided to make space for new things (Heart’s Garden?), to re-examine what I had in my life, and what I could let go of. I have taken steps to regain my health, and finally feel as if I’m making my way back to myself.
I also found my way back to this quilt. It has been a satisfying period of finding quilts made in a rush, and now taking time (pacing?) to sit with the quilt, find the way to quilt it, to finish it. My husband Dave always finds great places for us to photograph, and willingly holds the quilt, a support in all ways. So it was fitting to photograph this quilt at a place which is concerned with breath, with air. The title, Eris, was a parallel to my inner world last fall, and the discord seems to continue into this year as well, with its Ukranian war, the J6 Committee findings, the ongoing pandemic (and now we are returning to using our masks).
But I worked in Harmony. I appreciated the safety of Order, the constraints of Geometry, the goodness of Grace. But most of all, I acknowledge the gift from the One who loves us all: Creativity.
