New Project - New York Beauty - Block #1 finished!

     In late September, I visited the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado, which had a stunning exhibit of New York Beauty Quilts.  My post about that visit, with pictures of the quilts, old and new, can be found here.
     Just before the trip, I had received a wonderful gift of an abundance of  Kaffe Fassett fabrics from my sisters.  So gorgeous!  I adore these fabrics!  My guild has a quilt show in September, and I decided to try a bright New York Beauty quilt with these great fabrics!

     Since I have not done too much curved piecing, I decided to try out the blocks using scraps from a quilt I had made a few years back.   I had used a variety of purple fabrics, mostly Kaffe Fassett, for a friend's quilt.  

Clare's purple quilt

I had a small bin jammed with some of the remnants of that project.  

     I found a website with a number of free New York Beauty Patterns to download.  Some of the quilts I have seen use just one pattern, and others mix it up.  The link to that site is  here.  I decided I would start with the pattern number 0 (which I think of as block #1) and see how that worked.  

      I was using up lots of fabric, and so decided to print off some more copies, glue them to a folder, and cut out templates to help me conserve my scraps a little better.

     I made four squares which will finish at 8 inches.  I tried some different layouts.

With a center circle

With a border

Rotating the blocks.

      I ended up liking the center circle the best.  My work is not great, and all the seams don't align properly, but the rich fabrics hide lots of errors!  I absolutely adore this little piece!

     I was going to finish this as just a small piece to display or make into a pillow cover, but then I took out all the scraps from my bin and ironed them, and it turns out I have more of the fabric than I imagined, so I am going to continue to make test squares from some of the other New York Beauty Patterns.  My hope is that I will be much better for the practice before I cut into the new fabrics!  

The scraps (along with a few bigger pieces I found tucked away in other bins).

Some of the solids I will use

Chester the cat likes the center circle, too!   He looks so young here - but he is nearly 17 years old! 

     I have been working on a number of projects lately - a baby quilt which will be shared after next week, some bibs for my soon- to- be- created Etsy site, and a baby quilt version of my rainbow quilt as sample for a class I hope to be teaching.  This project, however, has my creative juices flowing.  I am loving it!   It feels good to be in love with a project!

Take care, and find a project you love!
Gretchen