More New York Beauties

You all are probably tired of seeing the continuing saga of the New York Beauty blocks.  However, between dealing with my dad's death and all the preparations to move, I'm not getting much other quilting done.  While I have neither time nor concentration for free motion quilting, I can still sit and hand-piece these in the evening when I finally try to relax.

These are actually the result of two weeks work.  Fifteen new ones.  Makes the total 126 out of 196.

I'm linking up for Sew & Tell Friday over at Amylouwho's.  Be sure to see all the other beauties people have to share.

My First Quilt

While a quilter's very first quilt may not be her most inventive, it may not be her prettiest, it may not be her most well-constructed quilt, by virtue of being first, it always holds a special place.

The Rose Star quilt was my first quilt. Ever since I was a child admiring my great grandmother's scrappy quilts, I knew that one day, I would make a scrappy quilt of my own. I collected fabric scraps from the seamstresses in my family (primarily my paternal grandmother), and daydreamed about starting a quilt. However, I never managed to get organized. It was the worsening of already rather significant allergies that severely curtailed the time I could spend outdoors which finally pushed me to start the quilt. I decided that if I couldn't be outside, I needed a positive inside project to keep from losing my mind. Quilting has been my escape ever since.

The Rose Star pattern came from a Traditional Quiltworks magazine. (I don't think it is being published any more.) The original pattern was scrappy like mine above, but where I have blue points on the perimeter of each "rose", their pattern showed green. Green points did make it look more rose-like, but hey even a newbie has to make a pattern her own.

My Rose Star quilt is hand-pieced with the exception of the outer, white border and the binding, although the binding is whipped down by hand on the back. It is also hand-quilted. It never occurred to me to use the sewing machine. In thinking back, trying to remember why I made the choice to hand-piece and hand-quilt, I think there were several reasons: 1.) Old sewing machine that was temperamental, 2.) Very limited experience with sewing machines in general, 3.) I wanted to feel at one with my pioneer ancestors (yeah, I realize that sounds hokey, but it was true), 4.) I wanted to be able to do my project anywhere and a hand project is much more portable than a machine project.


The quilt is not made with 100% cotton fabrics. Oh, I'm sure a lot of them are, but not all. I didn't realize that most quilters use only 100% cotton. So there are some poly-cotton blends, and even a piece of 100% polyester faux suede. Guess what? The quilting police never took me away.

I honestly do not remember how long it took me to finish this quilt. I believe I started it in 1995. I know it took me 3 winters to quilt it (I don't quilt during the warm months because I hold the quilts on my lap). I know it was finished by the time we moved away from Kansas to escape the allergies in 2002. And it is residing on my bed now.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Even though I'm not the most prolific quilter, making many of my quilts by hand, I still had a hard time choosing which quilt to enter in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I finally decided on this one, Lady Liberty, as I never tire of looking at its many fabrics.

This is my 2nd quilt. I began work on it somewhere around 1997, and didn't finish it until 2002. It was intended to be paper-pieced. I received the kit for Christmas, complete with paper-piecing patterns. Paper-piecing was a really new concept for me, and although I read and re-read the instructions, I never was able to make heads or tails about how to use the patterns. Instead, I made my own templates, and started cutting this scrappy wonder.

The blocks are hand-pieced, and the quilt is tied. Originally, I'd intended to hand-quilt it too, but 3 moves within a year and nine months, put a dent in my quilting for quite awhile. I was only able to steal snatches of time to work on quilting, so opted to finish Lady Liberty in the most speedy way possible.

I still have those templates. I love this quilt so much that I'm currently working on another. This one will be full-sized. You can see the beginnings of the new quilt here.

This is my first Blogger's Quilt Festival. I'm eager to see everyone's entries. As soon as I link up at Amy's Creative Side I'm going to start enjoying all the beautiful quilts. Go take a look!

Hand-pieced New York Beauty Blocks

Last week, I said good-bye to hand-quilting since the temperature is getting too warm to hold a quilt in my lap. However, it's all good. Hand-quilting season gives way to hand-piecing season. I stitched together these New York Beauty blocks this week.





I enjoyed making the twin-sized New York Beauty (shown in the blog article here) so much, I decided to do it again--except that this one will be full-size.

Yes, I admit that it's a bit wild. Ahem. The only colors that are left out are the browns, yellows, oranges (except for coral), and neutrals. The quilt is heavy in turquoise, purple, mauve, pink, black, white, and blue-greens.

I estimate that I'll need 196 of these 7" blocks. I did 40 last summer (I don't know exactly when I started). So I'm off and running on it again. Ought to keep me entertained for awhile, don't you think?

(But I'm already cutting for a hand-pieced, scrappy Drunkard's Path. Yeah, crazy--I know.)

I'll be linking up for Sew & Tell Fridays at Amy's. Stop in and see what everyone else is doing.

Hand-piecing

One of the most interesting aspects about quilting is that there are many techniques that can be used to reach that ultimate goal of the finished work of art--a work of art we so modestly refer to as a quilt. The various approaches include: machine-piecing and quilting (including free motion quilting), paper-piecing, applique, art quilting, rotary cutting, using templates, hand-piecing and hand-quilting. This blog is about hand-piecing.

I do both machine-piecing and hand-piecing. A quilter must approach hand-piecing with a different psychology. It's not about getting the quilt done ASAP. It can't be. A hand-pieced quilt takes time. It's about communing with our female pioneer ancestors; it's about enjoying the color and texture of each fabric; it's about the meditative quality of stitching each block together.

There are some practical aspects to hand-piecing as well. Being low tech, a hand-pieced quilt can go anywhere. Take your quilt block pieces, a needle, some thread, and scissors and you're good to go. Then when you need a little quiet time at your relative's house or in the hotel after a day out in and about, you've got a some quilting on hand that just fits the bill. Hand-piecing is also a form of quilting that can be done in front of the TV when you're hanging out at home with family watching a movie.

I've also found that I prefer to do smaller blocks and blocks with curves by hand. Every curved seam, no matter whether it is to be hand-pieced or machine-pieced must be pinned. When I'm using the machine, I'm going for speed. Stopping to pin just seems wrong. But when I'm in the slow mode of hand-piecing, stopping to pin just seems like part of the process.




When the seam is short enough, I can just about hand-piece the seam in the time it would take me to position it on the sewing machine and sew it together. On a seam that's an inch and half long, the sewing machine just isn't that much of an advantage.


To that end, I've started yet another hand-pieced quilt. These are examples of the blocks I've done so far. I've made forty just sitting in front of the TV in the evening with my family. This way, I've got both a hand-pieced project going AND a machine pieced project going. Maximizes my quilting time.

All of the quilts featured below have been hand-pieced. It is my preferred method of quilting.