And Then There Were Five

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Quiltobsession

Five New York Beauty blocks, that is. These are far, far, far, too addictive to stitch. Weekends are my “play” time away from the red and white quilt. Did I stitch anything but New York Beauty blocks this weekend? No, not a chance! Dreamt about them, as a matter of fact. I wonder if that’s a bad sign, that I’m now dreaming about these blocks. In different colours, different types of fabrics. I’m wondering what they might look like in batiks with Fassett prints. Or, of course, with my favourite shabby chic fabrics. The possibilities seem truly endless. For now I’m having fun making my Tiffany lamp quilt. But I have a feeling the box with the Fassett prints may come out to play … soon!

It presses perfectly and I am continuing with my (finally learned) good habit of grading the seams as soon as I finish a block.

Remember how thrilled I was with the wonderful warm weather in March? I think it was tempting the fates! The forecast for today is rain possibly mixed with … I don’t believe this … snow! I’m threatening to not open the drapes if there’s the possibility of seeing white flakes at the end of April. I hope the poor plants that have started to come up out on the roof garden survive this. Not to mention the butterflies that I’ve seen over the past few days. This is truly a topsy-turvy year as far as weather goes. No winter, summer in March and now … what, winter in April?

Baxter is fascinated by the little box in this photo. Why? Possibly because one night I forgot to put the lid on it. In that box are the ’30s hexagon blocks. While we slept, he merrily picked out piece after piece and left a trail of pieces for us to find in the morning. No harm was done. He just seems to love carting little pieces around and dropping them on the floor. I suppose I should be grateful he didn’t carry them to drop in his water bowl. And yes, I did do a count and know that none are missing. But ever since that night, he keeps his eye on the box hoping, I suppose, that I’m forgetful again.

Another New York Beauty

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Quiltobsession

Of course I couldn’t resist making a second one! These are way too addictive to stitch to stop at just one! Or two. Or a dozen. I’m already planning on making this one a 16-block little quilt. At least. Maybe more. I will try to stop after a couple more, though, and get back to the red and white quilt. Try is the operative word there.

There are so many setting options with this block. I could put them side by side, like this.

Or on point, like this.

Or beside one another like this.

Or like this. However I decide to set them, this is going to be known as my Tiffany lamp quilt. My mother loved Tiffany lamps, as do I, and these blocks definitely remind me of the Tiffany lamp we had in our kitchen when I was growing up.

Yesterday morning the ideas were just flying through my mind with so many possibilities for this block! I already know I’ll be making more than one quilt using these shapes, probably more than a few. My ideas book has almost a page full of notes on this one. I can’t get over how easy they are to put together. Loads of opportunities for continuous stitching and some wonderful curved piecing. This block has it all!

Baxter came to help when we were starting to take photos. Mr. Q.O. dubbed this one “The Critic”.

And this was his “official” first birthday portrait.

New York Beauty Beginnings and a Birthday

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Quiltobsession

What more is there to say? New York Beauty. An absolutely fabulous quilt block. A new 6″ New York Beauty Collection was released yesterday and I absolutely could not resist making a block right away. It took no time to stitch. The curves are very gentle, the points so sharp — it just is utterly fantastic. This block will go along with seven others and is destined to be a small wall quilt, but I have plans for a larger size quilt using the block in combination with some others.

It presses like a dream and lies flat as can be. And I graded the seams the minute I was through stitching it. I’ve learned that lesson all too well now!

There are combo pages one can print. As I decided to use eight different fabrics for the small wall quilt, I used one of the combo pages and was able to print all the shapes for a block on each of the eight fabrics using a piece that’s only 8.5 x 12.5 inches. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see that all the shapes for one block are printed on the piece of fabric.

New York Beauty is a design I have wanted to work with for ages so as soon as the collection was released I stopped what I was doing, grabbed some fabrics, cut and ironed them to freezer paper, printed and then was well on my way to having the first block done. Mr. Q.O. was told nothing else was getting done until I had that block finished. He’s used to this. When a new collection is released, I just about drop everything to make that first block. I know I go on about Inklingo, but I really can’t fathom doing this block any other way. No specialty rulers, no odd angles to worry about, no paper piecing that I’d have to pick off afterwards – just print, cut and stitch. It couldn’t be simpler! My block is hand pieced, as that’s my preferred way of stitching, but I’m sure it’s just as easy to machine piece.