I’m visiting Mom, among others I love.
But I finished up Blooming, and my husband scouted out this fun mural for photographs (and held the quilt top). Whatever did we do without murals for quilt backdrops?
Taking a breath…
Elizabeth is away
Blooming Scrap Quilt & Progress
But first, some fun photos arrived in my mailbox this week!
Susan, of PatchworknPlay blog, and also found on Instagram posted this in her Instagram feed this week. I have always loved her colors and especially how she subdivided the center (I changed the pattern because of her design!). Susan’s blog posts are always like a good visit with a far-away friend (we’ve known each other for ages, but have never met since she lives in Australia and I live in California); she makes such beautiful things.
I know that Linda is working on Heart’s Garden and Joan is nearly done as well. Lisa’s almost done, too, but then her daughter decided to get married. When they send their photos to me, I will post them.
Polly, who is on Instagram at Piecing Hope, sent me this photo, saying that it was just the right small project she needed during a move. She enjoyed the free patterns I have in my shop for the New York Beauties. Her feed is filled with lovely wonderful things. Mary S. has made some blocks as have others. You can see their work on Instagram at #newyorkbeautiesquilt.
Mary, of ZippyQuilts, really got in the spirit of New York Beauties, and is now making some more of her own to join these (I backed them with black). I like Mary’s blog, as she’s so inventive and is a champion of creating quick quilts in clever ways. Like Susan, I’ve never met Mary, but feel like she is a good friend. If you make one of my patterns, or something I said on the blog triggered something creative for you, send over a photo! I love seeing your beautiful blocks and quilts.
I started sewing up these blocks in earnest this week.
It reminds me of the Meadow Quilt from the designer Lizzy House (shown above) back in the day, a quilt which doesn’t have a released pattern and was taught for several years only in workshops. I have always loved this quilt, but when I saw this Blooming Scraps pattern, I knew it would be a good one to keep my hands busy while my mind explored all the ramifications of the world we now live in (translation: the J6 Hearings and SCOTUS decisions).
This past Thursday, I finished all 100 blocks. Like the original pattern, I did it in ombré. Now to sew it together and get it sent out for quilting.
I have a whole post on rulers, written when I was teaching, if you want an overview. But this week, I pulled this one out and really found it great for cutting 2 1/2″ blocks and 1 1/2″ snowball blocks. It’s a pretty slimmed down ruler, and sometimes that makes it a lot easier.
I went to my Modern Quilt Guild meeting for the first time in ages on Saturday. I usually participate online, but the covid numbers were down (however, I wore a mask) and it was Just Time. The hybrid meeting was incredibly confusing, but we saw quilts, we saw each other and showed our “Roundabout Challenges.” You can guess what I showed:
Patterns are still free on my pattern shop, for those who are looking for them. And I showed my version of Heart’s Garden for the Show and Share:
It still needs more buttons and some embellishments, but July is bringing me a long car ride, where I can get to work.
Speaking of Get to Work, I packed away my 2021-2022 Get To Work Book, and prepped up my new 2022-2023 book (I like them to go from July of one year to June of the next). I had saved some stickers, acquired others as I like to decorate a bit. I added in events for July, wrote in birthdays, but it’s a blank volume full of possibilities that greets me now at the side of my desk.
As Elise (the maker of the calendar) always says: Big Things Happen One Day at a Time. Think 100 blocks big– Think Making a Democracy big, just like our earliest founders did.
Happy Independence Day!
As I write this, the (illegal) fireworks are already being shot off, so we’re getting in the mood for the 4th.
(Belated) New York Beauty Notes:
Karen Stone was the one who kind of put the New York Beauty block on the quilting map, when she wrote her well-known book in 2004. You can get a copy now for $50, if you want one. Others have explored this block and written books. One of the more recent writers was Carl Hentsch, who combined the Beauties with Flying Geese blocks in his book, published in 2017. I purchased the book immediately, thought I’d lost it, and bought another. (typical)
Dora, of Orange Dot Quilts, and Rana, of Sewn Wyoming, are doing a summer-long NYBeauty quilt-a-long this year (2022), making a version they call Almond Country Beauty Quilt. Kits are available, as are patterns.
I’ll probably come back with the final four blocks of my New York Beauty series, after I take a break. I want to try out this quilt I sketched up!
Queen Bee for Gridsters • July 2022
I’m Queen Bee! I’m Queen Bee!
My month for choosing a block for the Gridster Bee is July 2022. I’ve been in love with this block for ages, even way back to the Flickr times, when I saw it on someone’s photo stream where they had done it for their Bee Block, too. Here it is on an earlier Instagram (when we all liked IG). Their blocks were Halloween oriented, but I have quite enough Halloween quilts.
But not nearly enough Autumn Quilts.
So I organized all my thoughts on color and put them into Autumn Leaf PatternLite. It’s color that will make or break this quilt. Take a look:
So many colors: purple, red, scarlet, yellow-green, burgundy, yellow, gold, yellow-orange, deep blue, brown, taupe just for starters. The biggest color trick that Nature does for autumn is bringing out these colors, but making them blend. Our favorite landscapes are all of sudden alive with color, but they are ALL BLENDED. You can pick out the colors, but when taking the scene in all-at-once, they work together. So that means, probably no fussy cut center squares that are objects/cute I Spy bits/cat fabric, as nothing should stand out. (More info is in the pattern.) If you notice in the block below, I did fussy-cut fabric, but (again) no objects/cute-I-Spy-bits/animals.
I wrote about this block and pattern a few whiles ago, if you want to go and read about its genesis.
Once you get the elements of the block constructed, it’s basically a nine-patch in sewing it all together. Yes, in the pattern I also give you the measurements for the four-at-a-time Flying Geese blocks, as well as the secret calculus to figure it all for yourself, if you ever want to make differently sized geese.
And like a good girl in QuiltLand, in that earlier post I also give you its heritage, and how I morphed it a bit. In the above block, I am following the Roberta Horton Rules for plaids: it’s okay if they are slightly off-grain, as that gives the block more motion.
For a signature block, I slipped a little leaf FPP block into the pattern; please make it in either size: 4-inch or 6-inch. Again, please use the fall colors and sign only what’s seen: name, IG handle, city/state.
Thank you to all my Gridster Beemates for making me autumn blocks in July!
New York Beauties, Block 4: Ocean Gleam
THIS IS AN UPDATE ON THE MAKING OF THIS BLOCK.
JUMP BELOW TO THE FOUR SQUARES TOGETHER FOR THE EARLIER POST.
The original post was published just about exactly two years ago, and I needed to make four blocks for the quilt. I changed the colors slightly . They are updated on the Main Page for the New York Beauties, or on the free download on the pattern, which can be found in my pattern shop. Okay, now that we got that business out of the way, here’s how it looked when I was doing freezer-paper piecing.
I decided to cut some triangle-shaped blobs to make it easier for piecing.
The top one is all trimmed.
I’ve pulled back the freezer paper a little bit so I can join the two sides.
Just playing around with the pieces. Just so you know, all four of the Large-Ray backgrounds are differently arranged. I really did use scraps.
Sometimes I make a block at a time, and other days I make all the parts and then sew them together. My light throws off a yellow cast; I promise that the green band next to the center is not that neon-y.
Goofing off with the blocks. All work and no play makes for a dull quilter.
Here’s Ocean Gleam pasted in digitally to the quilt. Looking fun and fancy!
Okay, read on for a jump to the past. Congratulations for making Block Four: Ocean Gleam!
We should stop meeting like this.
But it’s Wednesday, it’s June, and we’re ready for the fourth make in this series of New York Beauties. And the last in this foursome is Ocean Gleam, the dark dapples and glints that show up when you are lying on that proverbial beach and the ocean’s waves lull you into relaxation. Or something like that.
I dedicated a lot of digital real estate in the last New York Beauties Quilt post talking about how I work with FPP. Head over there if you need more info; scroll down as it is below Block Three. This block has two rows of rays and two bands, but you are up to this task, I know.
Q: How did I get here so fast? A: Read this. (Scroll down)
Checking for colors: bits of Block Four pinned up next her sisters.
Sew the parts together, and as usual I have the convex on top.
Yes. I am trying out colors again, but I have committed and am starting, judging by the sewn triangles on the upper arc. (The lower arc’s pieces are just laid out.)
Do you remember in the last post that I told you I figured out I didn’t need the paper on everything? It came from sewing this together. First I ripped off the seam allowances, like I’d learned. I was still wrestling with it under the needle, so I started ripping off the paper on the triangles. This photo was taken when I stopped to rip ALL the paper off. I had already pinned my four marked intervals together, so I didn’t need the paper for that.
Back view. You can see the press marks on the burgundy arc, and the pins on the upper arc, ready to be matched up.
Stitching, again without paper. I use those tweezers to help grab parts that need lining up. Tweezers are definitely recommended.
I just noticed they made a heart! These patterns come with a lot of love, so I shouldn’t be that surprised.
Time to sew them all together. Do your best, but really…remember that the perfect is the enemy of the good.
Magnifico Thread into action!!! (Kind of like a super hero or something.) I use either So Fine or Bottom Line from Superior Thread in the bobbin. Test, test, test.
I love a heavily quilted pillow, and I sketched out a lot of possibilities. But in the end, I decided not to have a Battle with the Beauties, and did a lot of outlining and stitching around the bits. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have a little fun:
Now I have some ideas for more blocks!
This all started when the pillow-of-the-month came from Riley Blake and I wanted something a little brighter. And yes, I know we have four, if not six blocks, and possibly a quilt hanging out there, waiting in the wings. So let’s keep going.
A full quilt of New York Beauties is ready for download in my pattern shop.
Our hashtag on Instagram is #newyorkbeautiesquilt so please post and tag and share your beautiful blocks. If you feel inclined and want to say a thank you, I’d appreciate a follow on either my blog where I post weekly (or occasionaly bi-weekly). You can also follow me on my Instagram.
Take a breath…and keep quilting!
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 