Tag: Quilt pattern by OPQuilt.com

New York Beauties · Something to Think About

Vespers, NYBeauties Block 10

Elizabeth E.4 Comments

Is it a hard-to-make block? Not at all.

But it kinda broke my brain a little.

This picture illustrates my vexation. On the left, and using the color swatches in the top row, is Version 1 of this block. Not happy with how the ombre effect worked out, I tried Version 2 of this block (on the right), using the color swatches in the bottom row. So, first, color broke my brain.

Color

I’d envisioned this block to be a representation of that time in the evening when everything is settling down, with glowing shades of pink and yellow and deeply colored purple. On the left in the background of the rays, you can see that range of hues goes just so far. Then there is a huge color jump from the light pinks to that dark coral at the far left. Likewise in Version 2 on the right, there is a progression from soft yellows to corals and pinks, then another color jump at the end. I faced that sort of thing ages ago when I made Annularity. I ended up making two of these quilts:

Do you spot the anomaly in color? It’s at the very bottom, the warm-lavender diamond just to the left of center. That quilt went to Paintbrush Studio, because it was made from their first drop of their solids line. In the version on the right, made for myself, I pulled the exact blue-lavender color from another solids line that I needed to make the transition flow smoothly.

This is because we live in a world with limitations. And fabric colors, especially in solids, are one of those things. The fabric line, my favorite — Painter’s Palette by Paintbrush Studios — has since fixed that awkward color jump and they now have a perfect blue-lavender.

But now there’s a jump in the pinky coral tones. But I’m really giving this fabric line a workout: I’m creating color in my Affinity Designer program, using sliders and sampling colors from photos to get the exact color that I want in my designs. But the fabric manufacturers are working with cloth, dye, finishes, and budgets and no, they can’t make every color. (This is why I believe some people dye their own fabrics — just to get that precise color they want. But I decided long ago not to go down that road.) If this really bugs me, I may just buy it from another line, but I will be sure to prewash it twice to try and mimic what I have (both for colorfastness — the PPSolids are incredibly colorfast) and to shrink up the weave a little (PPSolids have a tight weave with a nice hand, or feel, to the cloth). Who am I kidding? I’ll just use what I’ve got.

Technique

And the other reason I was struggling is technique, or “how I sewed it.” In that Version 1, above, if you use your critical eye you can see that the narrow green band seems more “lumpy” that the one on the right. When I was majoring in Clothing and Textiles at Brigham Young University (a major no longer offered), we had to make a wool suit. Our teacher had worked in the industry and precision was her specialty. I resewed the lower front corner of my jacket with its sloping curve from center front to hem probably four times, but in the end she still gave me a B. She wrote on my grading sheet that she knew I worked hard on it, but it still wasn’t as smooth as needed.

It wasn’t necessarily my skillset that wasn’t up to succeeding, it was my technique. I needed to slow down. We all are familiar with this feeling when we finish the center of a quilt and then its borders. Borders? And we throw on just something, and then it’s quilting, and then it’s the binding, which apparently many people don’t like. They just want to Be Done.

So I slowed way down in my sewing of the narrow bands on the Version 2 block. Pressing carefully, using a different order of construction, improving my technique as I went.

This is not a hard block. So choose your colors carefully, use your best techniques in sewing, and it will go well. That’s all I wanted to say on this, but I do include my tips and tricks for the block and sewing it together below.

This is what my cutting table usually looks like, however I crop out the mess when I post photos, to keep the distraction level down. There’s a free pattern for Block One in my PayHip shop, where you can also pick up the patterns for all the blocks. Don’t forget to look at the other posts about this quilt, all found on the Master New York Beauties page.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your colors and technique, in whatever you are stitching–

Tips and Tricks for Block 10: Vespers

Many other of the New York Beauties posts give you specific instructions on how to make that ray section; feel free to look at them for more help. We now pick it up after the parts are ready to be assembled. Please read all the way through before beginning.

Arrange the pieces so you’ll pin the INSIDE curve of the rays to the OUTSIDE edge of the narrow curved band. The Cereus block (9) discusses this. Divide the ray section and the small upper band into four sections, marking with pins, or finger pressing. Pin.

Sew a scrap, and at the edge, line up the two pieces to sew. I use a clay tool (the handle is nice and big) but you can also use a stiletto. Keeping the right-hand edges aligned, S L O W L Y stitch 1/4-inch away from the edge, easing in the fullness as you go. Remove pins as you go. To be truthful, It’s easier to put the concave on the bottom (the curving-out piece), but I think I flipped it for this photograph. The post on Cereus shows what I mean.

Press the band away from the rays.

Now we’ll attach the corner quarter-circle. Again, divide the edge into fourths. And made sure you are sewing the INSIDE edge of the narrow curved band to the outside curved edge of the quarter-circle.

All pinned up. The purple (convex side) will be placed next to the feed dogs:

Again, I use a scrap to get started. I nudge those two edges on the right together with my clay tool and sew in a quarter-inch seam, slowly.

I like dimension in my blocks, so that seam is pressed under the quarter-circle. (I’m sure you’ve noticed the pieced wedge in the center. My order from Keepsake Quilting hadn’t arrived when I was making this sample.)

Readying the next joining: outer narrow band to the lower edge of the rays.

Preparing the last seam: narrow band to outside corner. All those curved edges have bias, with the grain on the outer edges because I cut them like this:

All finished. In every step I took my time, keeping a good technique and not rushing.

Trimming is keeping several balls in the air at once, juggling them all.

  • First thing to check: your center. Make sure that diagonal line is as close to center of that center ray as you can get.
  • Next, go for the bright green arrows, seeing if you can get the outer edge of that band as close to 9 1/4″ as you can. On both sides.
  • Last, and only if you can, the bright blue arrows are asking you to see if the inner narrow band measurements are the same. Or similar.

Then trim off the excess. I designed the pattern so you would have some “play” on that outer edge.

Okay, that’s all for this block. Make 3. Will I use both blocks? Probably. In our lively quilt, I don’t think anyone will object:

I put them both up in our progress chart, and they are fine. This is all to say that if you make one and want to make a shift in colors of the same block, it will be fine. There’s another double-colored block up there now!

New York Beauties · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt

Shimmer: New York Beauties Block 8

Elizabeth E.6 Comments
New York Beauty block, Shimmer, by Elizabeth Eastmond

This is not Shimmer‘s first rodeo.

New York Beauty block, a different version of Shimmer, by Elizabeth Eastmond

It first started as “Dazzle” and I liked it, but then I was playing around one night and came up with that bias-stripey-trim on the outer ring, and liked it a lot more. So Dazzle went back in the Possibles File, and Shimmer came out.

I clumped the cut-out freezer paper pieces with their chosen colors and got to work. First up is folding on all those lines, something I learned from my last attempt at this. The really flat edge of the Add-an-Eighth-Plus ruler is lovely for this. (I just picked the first link that came up; there is no kick-back.)

I still use that backwards-fold-it-over method I learned from Verushka, as it allows me to see how big of a piece I need for the next segment. A somewhat confusing (apparently) discussion of all this is on my first freezer paper post. But if you follow along on the steps, you’ll get it.

This is a small ring, the first one, so there is only one section, and the piecing goes quickly. I’ve trimmed it all up. Peel off the freezer paper gently, so you don’t open up any seams.

I always keep the concave side on top, with the convex side on the bottom. In other words, the quarter-circle E piece is toward the feed dogs. I explain it in the pattern.

Two parts finished. It’s late at night, but I was determined to get the block done. Mistake.

Whoops. It’s not supposed to be two blues together.

Luckily, with freezer paper, it’s easier to unpick that if you were using paper in the traditional foundation paper-pieced gig. Got the blue replaced with lavender, but then couldn’t get the two sections lined up. Unpicked that one, re-stitched and kept going. (Don’t you love the dull light at night, even with the best lamps? No wonder I can’t see colors!)

And then went to bed bummed out because I hated it. Moral: don’t sew when you are tired. Duh.

The next afternoon, after the sun had come out from our cloudy/drizzley morning, I decided I liked the light pink and green combo. The outside sections were also working fine, but that it was the middle large rays that were the bust.

So I auditioned new colors for the rays. I also ended up changing out the A piece–the outer corner.

I decided not to take apart the block I didn’t like, but start again, making it over and using the new colors.

I also decided to press the seams toward the colorful wedges, although truly, this fabric is so good it doesn’t much matter, as there is little see-through.

Remember how I showed you I have five points of pinning on those larger curves? One in the middle…then fold the edges in, and mark those where the folds are. That makes five, with the two outer edges.

And here’s the new one. Will I throw away the first attempt? No. Look below.

If you are aiming towards a quilt, make five of the new one. Those, along the first and second blocks we made are on this Progress Chart. It doesn’t much matter that the first attempt is different. These blocks may not stay in this arrangement, but it gives you an idea of where we’re headed.

The new color chart (and the first version of Shimmer block colors) are up on the free Preview at my pattern shop. And everything is organized on the tab above: New York Beauties. I’m thinking that the pace of about every other week suits me. Hope it suits you, too. And no worries if making this is not in the cards at this time. The pattern, and these tutorials will be around for a long while. I’m still getting notes from quilters using my FPP circle patterns, and that first one was from a decade ago.

Okay, there’s another block for you in this New York Beauties Quilt (for Barbara). The pattern coupon from the last post has expired but getting twelve fascinating — but not complicated — blocks in one pattern that costs just a little more than a pastry and a beverage drink is a real deal. Grab yours here and come sew with me!

New York Beauties · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt

Aurora: New York Beauties Block 11

Elizabeth E.5 Comments

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).

newyorkbeauties_opquilt-colorsDownload

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!

New York Beauties · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt

Uncertainty is Wisdom in Motion

Elizabeth E.15 Comments

This phrase intrigued me. It came from a podcast I listened to while out walking, so I’ve been thinking about what happens when we try to learn something new. Or lean away from “what we’ve always done.” Or have to hang out in the middle of a decision, not knowing the best way forward (the temptation is always to force it to a conclusion, apparently, limiting new possibilities). These ideas on uncertainty are from Maggie Jackson:

“Neuroscientists are beginning to unpack what happens in the brain at the uncertainty of the moment, when the realization that you don’t know that you’ve reached the limits of your knowledge instigate a number of neural changes. Your focus broadens and your brain becomes more receptive to new data and your working memory is bolstered. So this kind of rings a bell: you’re on your toes and that’s why uncertainty at that moment is a kind of wakefulness. In fact, Joseph Cable of the University of Pennsylvania said ‘that’s the moment when your brain is telling itself there’s something to be learned here.’ So by squandering that opportunity or retreating from that discomfort, we’re actually losing an opportunity to learn. Your old knowledge is no longer sufficient.”
–Maggie Jackson on the podcast The Grey Area, with Sean Illing

So what does this have to do with quilting? 

I recently finished up my pattern of the New York Beauties (more on that in a minute) and decided I wanted to make each block in the quilt in regular intervals, but many of those above are multiples of the same block. So I thought I’d test out using freezer paper, instead of my usual parchment paper, and see how I liked it. (Besides that, my regular 17 lb. parchment wasn’t being made anymore–only the 28 lb. Time for an update!)

And the verdict? I like it!

First, start with this: ChicWrap’s 18″ aluminum foil dispenser. It comes with foil, but I put that back in the kitchen, and slipped in my 18″ roll of freezer paper.

You don’t thread it through that slit, but instead, lift the lid, to set up the paper for cutting.

Pull it out so you have at least 11″ of length. Fold it in half (it will measure about 9″ in width), then take it to your cutting mat to trim it up to 8 1/2″ x 11.” Now you are ready to feed it through the printer. If you don’t have a printer that will allow you to feed it one sheet at a time, you can tape the freezer paper to a piece of heavier paper or cardstock (trim the freezer paper down to 8″ x 10 1/2″) and send that through.

I read about buying sheets of freezer paper already cut, but most of the commenters said it was no sturdier than the stuff we use from our rolls, so I just cut it from the roll, and went with it. After printing, I cut it out around the outlines of the piece I was using. You can experiment with this technique by downloading my free New York Beauties single pattern from PayHip:

Even though I’d already printed out all the regular parchment papers, my brain was saying “there’s something to be learned here.” So here we go:

After cutting out your shape from the printed freezer paper, fold on the first line, and press just this section (Ray 1) to your first piece of fabric (picture 1: muted lavender). Then lay that on top of your second color (picture 2: orange).

Later on, I figured that I should make a crease on all the lines of my section, but for now, I digitally outlined the rays in orange dashes to help you see the shapes.

Make sure there is enough of your second fabric underneath your first fabric. Pin, or clip. Head to the sewing machine, and sew next to that folded edge.

Now to the ironing board. Press, smoothing the fabric away from the seam. Iron only on the next section (Ray 2). Fold back along the line between rays 2 and 3. 

At the cutting board, align your ruler for a scant quarter-inch seam, and cut off the excess. If you need to trim at the end of the piece, open up your paper, so you know you aren’t going to cut off something you’ll need later on. Use the edge of the paper as a guide, but rough-cut off the extra. (See picture 12, below.)

Fold back alone the line between sections 2 and 3, revealing the shape of the next ray (shown here in dashed orange lines). Place on your third fabric (picture 5: blue-green). Stitch along that folded edge. Iron Section 3 paper onto the blue-green fabric, smoothing out the fabric underneath.

Fold on the line between sections 3 & 4 (Ray 4 shown here in orange dashed lines). Place until on next fabric (picture 6: tomato red). 

Close-up of stitching

Again, stitch along folded edge, shown in pictures 7 & 8. You can also see how I pin — just in that seam allowance. Did all my fabrics have a straight edge, making it easy for me to align (as in picture 6)? No, not always. If not, I would place, trim…and then pin and sew.

You know the drill now: press just that section (Ray 4), then trim at the cutting table, as shown in picture 11. 

In picture 12, I show how I open up my paper, so I can cut off the excess at the base of the B1 section. Then I fold it back down and trim that scant quarter-inch at the crease of the paper (between Rays 4 and 5). In picture 13, I fold it back down, and lay it on the next fabric, using the shape of Ray 5 to check you have enough fabric. Those orange dashed lines are a visual guide: I do have enough. Stitch along the folded edge.

Yep–you know: press only the Ray 5 section of freezer paper onto your fabric. Back to the cutting mat to trim at a scant quarter-inch, then repeat with your final ray (picture 15: a happy orange for me). Press that freezer paper to your final ray. It should look sort of like the image in picture 16. Set aside, and start on B2.

Following the numbers, and using the same technique, stitch all the rays for B2. Trim carefully around the edges of both, neat and clean (picture 17). Peel back the papers for those edge-rays with wrong sides together and pin, aligning lower and upper edges of B1 and B2. Take to sewing machine. I found I had to peel back even a little more. Stitch, then carefully peel off the freezer paper. When you take it to your ironing board, press that last seam the same direction as all the rest (you’ll figure it out).

Charging right ahead, press a center mark in the A Outer Corner, the B1/B2 piece, and the C Center. Don’t press down through the whole piece — just the tip of your iron is all that’s needed. Pin the outer edges of the A Outer Corner and the center marks, and head to the sewing machine.

In picture 22, I sewed the A Outer Corner to my rays, PUTTING THE LARGER OUTER CORNER TO THE BOTTOM. This is different than you usually see. Please take it slowly, no rushing, keep aligning as you go from pin to pin to pin (there are only three).

In picture 23, after putting in my three pins, I sewed the C Center to the rays, WITH THE RAYS TO THE FEED DOGS. Again, take it slowly, and keeping aligning the fabric. You can pull it toward you a little as you stitch, because those curves are bias. By elongating them (by stretching them out), it may help them to line up a little easier. But not a big pull, not a big tug. Little adjustments. You are the tug boat, getting that steamship into port — little by little. (Okay, enough bad metaphors.)

Press. Usually you are pressing away from the rays.

Now to trim up. I gave you extra on the A Outer Corner so if your block went askew, it wouldn’t be a tragedy (just another way I show my love to you in my patterns — I make the mistakes so you won’t have to). Align the corner of your ruler so the 1/4″ line is right at the Outer Corner fold, as show in picture 24.

Then check the opposite corner, lining that 9 1/4″ mark at the folded edge. It’s not rocket science, meaning that it most likely won’t be exact. Get as close as you can. Trim, then turn the block, lining up the 9 1/2″ line with the trimmed edge, and slice off whatever is left (not much on this side).

Done! Wild Sunflower block is complete. Now, if you are going for the full quilt, the pattern says to make a total of three. So will the freezer paper keep sticking?

Ray Two is finished, and I’m plowing again into Ray Three, and yep — it’s still sticking. For one of the blocks you make it five times. I’ll be interested to see how that goes. And overall, I felt like using this method is faster, always a plus.

Just like I used a weekly goal to help pull me out of my sewing slump last summer, I’ll be using these New York Beauties to get me going for this year. If you want to follow along, I have a coupon for you to use, if you want to purchase the pattern. (I’ll probably do this every two weeks, so don’t panic.)

Just head to my quilt pattern shop, and when you check out, type in this code (note the three capital letters at the beginning). You’ll get 20% off the pattern. It expires on Leap Day! (February 29)

All of this can be found on the Master New York Beauties page, on the tab above. When the coupon expires, I’ll take it down, but a listing of the blog posts will be linked there, if you want to refer to them.

What we ate for the Super Bowl (no, we did not watch it): Homemade Focaccia

Just before kick-off, Camryn and Landon (he, of Focaccia fame) stopped by to visit, then took off again to their Super Bowl party. Later that night, we blanked out by watching the movie Dune on Netflix, understanding about 60% of it. If you’ve seen it, what was your percentage?

300 Quilts · Happy Old Year Ending (Wrap-up) · Quilt Finish

Happy Old Year Ending: 2023

Elizabeth E.12 Comments

We can’t change the past.

Matthew Potts’ book Forgiveness: An Alternative Account holds this thought up to the light so the rays shine through in a multiple different ways, but the premise is always the same: “Even if we could completely undo the effect of what has been done, we cannot make it so that “the thing that was done never happened” (Jankélévitch, quoted in Potts, 77). That fact of the deed, and the impact of that fact if not of its effects, shall remain absolute and eternal.”

We can waste years of our lives angry at others out for all the wrong they have shown us. We can castigate ourselves for our personal failings (we all have our own list of them), vowing never to repeat them. We often struggle.

Potts’ answer? Bring in the principle of forgiveness: “Forgiveness seeks to live in the wake of loss. It accepts that what has been lost cannot be restored, and then it aims to live in and with the irrevocability of wrong” (23). He goes on to say that: “forgiveness also accepts that past as unalterable and so imagines what possibilities for the future its battered history might bear” (24). In other words, forgiveness is future-facing. “Whatever the past has been or the future may bring, we can begin, and begin again” (94).

I cannot quote enough of his book here to show you his extensive thinking around this idea. But I sometimes wonder — if we can not turn back time — why do we all turn our head to look behind us? Like how I started this post? These three quotes address this:

“As soon as you have a language that has a past tense and a future tense you’re going to say, ‘Where did we come from, what happens next?’ The ability to remember the past helps us plan the future” (Margaret Atwood).

“One faces the future with one’s past” (Pearl S. Buck).

And finally, to bring it full circle: “Nothing we can do can change the past, but everything we do changes the future” (Ashleigh Brilliant). I liked Buck’s idea, that the lenses with which we view the future are colored by our past. Atwood is more tactical, encouraging to use what we’ve learned to plan our future. Brilliant, whose cartoon is above, cautions us not to waste our energy dwelling on mistakes. 

I hope that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t tackle some of our UFOs, as I noticed that most of the quilt finishes (above) were pulled from my stack of UFOs. However, to think kindly about them, it’s like my past self left them for my current self to finish up (thank you, Pearl Buck). So, instead of rueing that new ideas in 2023 were sparse, I’m grateful that I had something to turn to to keep myself busy. I’m also trying to apply the ideas in Mr. Potts’ book to keep myself forward-facing. I’ve written up list of quilts I want to make in 2024, and I have already started on the first, sewing my way into this new year.

While I have a whole new year coming up in which to finish Potts’ book (and make quilts), what I’ve learned so far is this:
Evaluate where you are. Move on from failures. 
Forgive, and then forgive some more. 

Happy Old Year Ending–

Eclipse • Quilt #285 • my final finish in 2023

P.S.In a combination of satisfying, yet somewhat unhappy goodbye to 2023, our local quilt shop (Bluebird Quilts) decided to close, and I picked up several lengths of fabric for backings for these planned 2024 quilts. It was sad to say good-bye to the place where I started teaching; her reasons for closing are varied, and I wish her well.

P.P.S. If you are new here, you can always revisit some of my Happy Old Year Ending posts, where I re-introduce myself to my readers. And maybe give an observation or two. The one from 2019 is a classic.

by Sharon Nullmeyer (@Nullsie on Instagram)