New York Beauties took a long time to get here: about three years. Started in 2022 from the spark of an idea, with a pillow of four New York Beauty blocks, it quickly morphed to quilt size, with a series of block tutorials. Then it moved from there to the new rage of freezer-paper piecing, tired as we were of ripping off papers from the back of our precision piecing.
While that took some time, to get all those blocks designed and drafted, then figure out a tutorial, then make the required number — it seemed to take longer to quilt it myself. Every block called for a new idea, a new way to outline the rays, or fill in the backgrounds, or sculpt the arcs. Many times I seriously doubted I was up to the task.
I unpicked some areas and re-did them. I’m still not sure about some of them, but it’s time to let this rest.
Quilt #300 Started June 2022 • Finished September 2025, with the label being sewn on this afternoon.
I’ve learned a lot about what colors are my favorites (butter yellow seems to be right up there, along with a bluey aqua).
I found out my machine’s limitations. Neither it — nor I — are high-precision longarm machines, although we do our best.
I remembered that sometimes simple borders are best, and that a ruler and a disappearing marker can get those designs sewn into cloth.
I thought about my very own New York beauty, born in the Empire State. She has fallen in the love with the Big Apple (New York City’s nickname) and tries to go there often. This quilt is for her….
…from me, her mother.
I was stitching the binding down while we were at her house this past week, so yes, you do see little binding clips. Kinda’ adds to the color, don’t you think? But I didn’t want to leave without a picture of her with this quilt, since the full title is:
Usually I do a round-up of blog posts at the end of a Quilt Finish, but this time I’ll just send you up to the New York Beauties page with everything listed, including a free block or two. The rest of them are in the pattern, found in my pattern shop on PayHip.
I will say that the border was cut 5″ wide, then mitered on. I will probably update the pattern at some point in the future, complete with new photos, etc. If you have purchased it, you can re-download it. I’ll announce it on here.
Lastly, I am now working on a visual index for my quilt blog. It’s called Blog Index, and it’s up at the top.
Maybe. Maybe Victor Vasarely got there first in the art world, but I’m guessing the origin of circles on squares, or even squircles on squares, may have come from all the mending the first woman did on her children’s clothes. Just a hunch. I really have no way of knowing this, but when my friend Dot mentioned the artist Vasarely as being reminiscent of our #backtosquircles project, I believe she was on to something. Have fun looking at his art.
My Tips and Tricks
Caveat: If you would rather fold laundry or scrub out the bathroom than do hand appliqué, I have a post on how to do nearly invisible appliqué on machine, using monofilament thread. It’s quick! It’s easy!
Back to the method I used *this time.* (I might change it next time.)
To cut out the shape: I would often iron on my freezer paper version of the pattern (I just printed it directly from the pattern). Other times I would just use a pin. Always I used my rotary cutter to slice around the fabric, and usually I was working with four layers of one polkadot fabric. (I learned in this project how many many many polkadot fabrics I have.)
In my past appliqué lives I have always cut out a bunch of the shapes out of freezer paper and pressed the fabric onto that. I would place shiny side up, and nudge the edges onto the shiny stuff and they would generally stick. When it was cool, I would take the pattern out and use it again.
This time I tried Old School Methods: spray some spray starch into the lid, and using a small brush, stroke it around.
Like this.
You can just see where it’s damp from the starch. Don’t use too much. I always lay down a piece of cloth on my ironing board to catch the dribbles.
Place a template (here I used mylar and punched holes in it — more on that later), pressing the corners and sides up over the template. The starch should dry and hold it in place. Let it cool, then remove the template. Duh.
I finger press some marks at the centers.
Then I arrange the cooled, pressed squircle by eye and pin it down. Sorry if this is repetitive for you experts — feel free to leave a comment if you have more tips; this is always helpful!
Sometimes you’ll get a little bump out. That just means underneath the seam allowance has its knickers in a twist. As you stitch along to this spot, with your needle, sweep the seam allowance away from the bump (in the directions of the arrows) and it should ease up and smooth out.
Sometimes I just put four pins.
Other times that squircle isn’t going anywhere.
I use the Thread Conditioner from Riley Acres, and I like the Super Bobs Bright Thread Collection. Rachel uses her own bees’ beeswax to make the conditioner, and I like how it feels, and it never gets hard.
I’ve sort of started evaluating my polkadots for this project. The ones on the left are rejects. The ones in the middle I was thinking about, but in the end, I only used the ones on the right: regularish-shaped dots, with not too much else going on.
Twenty-two done. I’m ahead of schedule, happily.
I made you a chart to keep track of our squircles. I added it to the pattern, and tweaked the pattern a bit, if you want to download it again:
The mylar sheets can be found on the Great Store in the Sky, and I just slipped the pattern underneath and traced it off with a fine Sharpie marker. The Mylar cut easily with scissors. I punch holes in my Mylar so the steam doesn’t build up and warp the template. Although with the starch, I didn’t use steam this go round.
This little project will sink into the background for a while, so I promise, no more squircles posts for a while. But the pattern (free!) and the tips and tricks will stay here on the website for your use.
keyword search term on this site: squircles hashtag on Instagram: #backtosquircles
You knew this was coming, right? After you saw that last post about squircles, I’ll bet you knew I’d go hunting and fall down a rabbit hole. You are very perceptive.
This is a squircle grapefruit from designer Tai Tan. I found it on Dribble, which is also a website I didn’t know about before.
A squircle is not a rounded square, apparently. There is some design technique that can explain it, and it has to do with the flat edges. In a rounded square there are flat edges. In a squircle, they may LOOK flat, but they are every-so-slightly rounded (from here). John Uttley also has a nice grid of squircles to admire, and here’s more to see if you want.
Lisa, my quilty friend in the previous post, was as happy as I was with these quilts, so we thought we cook up a project. It went like this: 1st idea: make blocks and swap 2nd idea: swap backgrounds but still do your own appliqué 3rd idea: set up a challenge to do *so many* each month, and check in with each other.
Third time’s the charm. We’re doing a Squircle Challenge. So I went looking and besides the designers, I found some quilters:
Marla Varner’s blog, Penny Lane, feels like the OG.
I did an image search and was able to source this image to Zippy Quilts, my friend Mary’s blog. This quilt alternated squares on squares, and squircles on squares. It was made by Carolyn Brown.
Last quilt I found was from Amanda Jean Nyberg’s website, and she calls it “dot your i’s quilt.” This is different because of the low-value backgrounds.
So here’s the story. I started the PatternLite with using a 5″ block (5 1/2″ with seam allowance) and that’s the first one in the pattern. But then in my stash box, way in the back of the closet, I found a stack of Charm Squares in Painter’s Palette Solids, my favorite brand. The 4″ squircle just looked too crowded.
So I redrew the squircle, to be more squircle-y, with slightly rounded sides. Then I resized it to fit — making it a 3 1/2″ (finished) size. That seemed to fit the backgrounds much better. So you have two sizes and two shapes in the free pattern.
I spotted my purple/lime green polka dot fabric at the top of this photo of Machelle Preston’s quilt, in the current Springville Quilt Show (see previous post).
I have been hoarding collecting polka dots for years now. This is why: Come A-Round, from earlier in my making (Quilt #90).
However…I noticed that I seem to have plenty more dotty fabrics, so why not use them again, borrowing Machelle’s idea?
So here are the first three, courtesy of one of those sleepless nights that come along once in a while (if you haven’t seen Melanie, you are missing out). Now I just have about 177 more to go, but don’t worry, in the pattern there are two sizes (the 5-inch requires fewer blocks), and a helpful chart so you don’t panic. Just tote this project around to doctor’s offices, pick it up while watching TV, or while you are hiding from your family in a quiet room.
Because we dreamed this collaboration up in August, and everyone’s going back to school, that’s our theme. Our hashtag is #backtosquircle, a play on Back To School. We have an easy schedule, for who needs more pressure in their lives? The drill:
choose your block size/quilt size
make a bunch
every 20 blocks made, post it up on Instagram with our hashtag #backtosquircle (if you use that social)
take it slowly!
Here’s your free 5-page Squircles handout. It has the templates for the 5″ blocks, for a 4″ block and some basic directions.
You know the usual: send your friends over here to download it, rather than making copies for them.
The Meaning of Round Corners (with this great line: “In interface design, the rounded rectangle is sometimes called “the happy rectangle”.) I can always use some more happy in my life.
First off: Happy Father’s Day to the men in your life, and especially the men in mine: my husband, Supreme Quilt Holder, three sons, and one son-in-law, then a gang of grandsons. Here’s a early photo:
(Missing: three more grandsons, three more granddaughters. I just love all those little girls in their beautiful dresses.)
There’s this phenomena about June of every year, when the deserts heat up, drawing cool, moist air further inland from the coast. The locals have a name for it, which I hate. I just call it Reprieve from the Heat for Another Month, or something. because I do love the cool mornings. Yes, I do.
My friend Mary gets too much of this cooling layer and we are always mentioning it in our correspondence, me complaining about the coming heat, and her bemoaning the too-cool summer. Welcome to Sunny California.
So here is my first Posh Penelope for June: all sunny and bright, in a good kind of way.
A little less sunny, but still bright.
Full out fog in these, with all those blues. I’m going to have to ramp up with brighter colors next go-round, but I do like those toothbrushes on the blue fabric.
Here’s the group so far. 41 blocks are planned, and I’ve made 27, more than halfway. But I probably said that last time. You should see Carol’s stack — they are wonderful!!
Here’s Sherri’s Block of the Month for June. It’s a fun series and I’m using all her fabrics (picked up one more new last week). But alas, the Friendship Star and I are NOT friends. Nor do I like these stars:
I also don’t like sour gummies or the smell of coconut shampoo, but I don’t think that has anything to do with quilting.
So I substituted this: I have no idea what Sherri has planned next, so I may be moving other centers of hers around, but since I’m allergic to the star she chose, here’s my spool of thread.
And here’s the back of it. It’s fast: sew the sides on, sewing only between the dots. Then sew from the dots to the corners.
And yes, here’s your free PatternLite. And you’re welcome. Click below the spool to download.
This is me, making a mess. It’s good to document messes once in a while. I was learning a new way of making circles. (Last post) I know these photos drives one of my friends crazy; she is a very tidy sewer, but her sewing room is also about 4x as big as mine; a lot of stuff gets piled up in mine. I have learned to focus and ignore the periphery, a skill I learned when I had four small children and had to get the quilt done:
Like this one, from the Early Years. My son Chad now has this Sunshine and Shadow quilt — somewhere, he says — but even if it’s lost in his attic, I still have photos. Machine-pieced, hand quilted with a layer of flannel inside…not batting.
I think I kind of jumped the shark a couple of posts ago, writing about sewing nightgowns and stuff, but things are going better this week. The New York Times must have known I needed a creative tune-up, and published a five-day “Creativity Challenge.” (If you don’t subscribe, here’s a link to the first article.) In it they note that “Research links creativity to happiness and well-being, and a 2021 study found that older people who participated in creative activities showed less cognitive decline than those who did not” (Passarella, NYTimes).
In an earlier missive, Elizabeth Passarella, the writer, said “You are all creative in some way. There’s a definition of creativity that researchers use: generating something novel that is also useful.”
Generating something novel that is also useful. I need to print that out and tape it to my sewing machine. The first exercise was doodling:
We had to begin with a circle and go from there. I’m do not consider myself a hand-drawing-artist, so I did the best I could with a screen and a mouse. Don’t know where that second drawing came from–maybe from the state of politics in our nation today (doesn’t it make you crazy, too?).
So take a listen to Amie McNee if you need a shot of “why should I create.” Her TEDx talk was something I happened on this week, and I found inspiration in many things she said [words in brackets are mine]:
We need to be at the piano [or the sewing machine] making our art more than ever as we navigate these incredibly difficult things. Art is not just for kids; art is not just for adults…we need it now. [One reason is that] creativity is the missing pillar of self-development. [Another reason is that] when we create, we have agency. Another beautiful reason to create is because it reclaims your most valuable resource…our attention in a society that profits from you being stuck on your phone. We are a culture of consumption and we’ve forgotten how to make. We need less consumption, more creation.
The act of making art is inherently generous.
I’ve been slowly working on this. There are a lot of thread changes, and some unpicking, as it’s been a while since I was at the quilting machine. I don’t quilt every day, so I like to keep track with the labels.
That plastic bag in the Messy Room photo? I pulled it off this pile of gorgeous goodness from Stash Fabrics. I wish I could say I was influenced by all the pansies I saw in Krakòw, but the truth is I ordered these before I went. But maybe I could see into the future?
In the NYTimes creative series mentioned above, I especially liked how they talked about a form of daydreaming: “You’ll be more likely to capture original ideas if you’re in “atypical salience processing mode,” which is a fancy term for a state in which you’re focusing on the unconventional. Look at a piece of abstract art, or stare out your window in a way you usually don’t, paying attention to the space between buildings or the shadows formed by trees.” (You can read the article with this gift link: here)
Happy Day Dreaming!
Layer your summer salad into a bowl:
Cook a cob of corn in the microwave, wrapped in wax paper, for 4 minutes. Run under cool water to cool it down then slice off the cob.
Tomatoes (smaller and flavorful like Campari tomatoes)
Romaine lettuce, sliced
Bit of arugula
Radish chunks
Cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced 1/3″ thick
Chunks of rotisserie chicken
Focaccia (my favorite recipe is here — I make it every other Saturday night (10 minutes to whip it up in the evening and in the morning, 10 minutes to prep for the baking, plus rising time).
OccasionalPiece--Quilt! 