Saturday, November 15, 2008

New York Beauty




FINALLY! I've been working on this thing for years! I actually pieced it in a few months- several years ago. Then it sat there because I was afraid to quilt it. I finally took a deep breath and just stabilized it by quilting in the ditch with monfilament thread. Then I wanted to embellish it and do fancy things with pretty threads and beads and findings. So you guessed it-- it sat again for a few years. I then decided to just put a binding on it and call it "done" and go back to embellish it when the mood strikes me. Even though it's not really done- I plan to mess with it more- I'm calling it done and getting ready to hang it in my dining room. This is Karen Stone's New York Beauty paper piece pattern. I reduced it by 50% because it was bed-size and I wanted a wall quilt. I used about 600 fabrics in it- using it as an excuse to increase my stash back when I was piecing it. I tried not to use one fabric for more than 2 blocks or spikes. for the most part, a fabric is in one of the blocks and is also one of the border spikes.

The cool part is that this quilt inspired a customer to learn to paper piece. (Yea, Joanne!). She's starting smal but wants to do this quilt (or one like it). The funny thing is that I am teaching her to paper piece over the internet. I feel a little like I am playing charades with my eyes closed, but she's a quick study and learning fast.

Has anyone else out there done any Karen Stone patterns? Karen is one of my favorite designers and I think I'm going to have to tackle another one of her patterns. I also like that she has her design pack on EQ6. TOO much FUN!


2 comments:

Susan @ Blackberry Creek said...

Wow! What a masterpiece. You did a great job. I was in charge of our donation quilt one year and chose a Karen Stone pattern, but I forget what the title of it was. I retitled it Millenium because it was our 2000 donation quilt. We did it in blue and yellow and it was gorgeous.
--Susan Cleveland, B'ham Quilters Guild

Sue said...

Thanks for your kind words, Susan. I'm really impressed by all of the charity and donation work your guild does. Not only are you a guild of very talented ladies, but you are also very generous!