Michael our guild president and his wife had their first baby recently so what does a quilt guild give as a gift? The answer is obvious. Lots of secret conversations were had and because Michael is a New Yorker I chose the New York beauty block. I might have been sworn at by the other ladies, but I think they all enjoyed it once they had finished it. We used a variety of different blocks found at this site. The remit was to make it scrappy and leave the outside edge off so they could all be done the same. Then the blocks began to arrive and I had fun auditing background fabric. I was keen on this green, but it didn’t quite seem strong enough.
However, this blue worked a treat.
I started sewing the blocks to the background, it was a daunting task as I had I think 23 blocks to do and I’m not a big fan of sewing curves. However, I discovered it is a lot easier when you starch the fabric. It helped so much to stop it stretching out of shape. Then it was back to the design wall to settle on the design. I have to admit this took me a good few attempts but finally decided on this.
I also mulled over the quilting design for a few weeks but eventually I got inspired and went for it over a marathon 24 hours. I chose feathers around each block with a swirl inside and a zigzag in the negative spaces.
Once the binding was on it was finally delivered to Dad who sent us this lovely picture of baby on his new quilt.
I wonder how many readers like to plan everything about a quilt before they start it. Maybe reading about the process behind this quilt lets you see that sometimes, the fun is in not knowing and enjoying the surprise on what it turns.
Written by ShevvyLondon
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