Tuesday, February 18, 2014

New York Beauty

The Wombat Stew paper piecing bee is rolling on for 2014.  February is Gemma's turn as Queen, and after much thought, she threw us a curly challenge!  A slightly open ended one at that.  Gemma asked us all very kindly if we would make her a New York Beauty block............. 
 **crickets** 

After the initial shock, horror and gasp - we all agreed.  Then hit Pinterest!  I found a multitude of amazing blocks, in all shapes, colours and sizes.  Then stepped away cross-eyed and anxious.  I mean, they're a pretty full on block to tackle!  Anyway, I took a deep breath and decided to choose THIS ONE.  But knew it would look completely different!  Gemma gave us a colour palette to work with, so I drew from that and spent over an hour pulling fabrics, putting fabrics back, re-visiting fabrics and then walking away.  Another deep breath and I jumped in!

And a few days later, this is the result.....

New York Beauty

Isn't she lovely?  Now, it's not perfect, but damn I came close!  I basically managed to match all of the seams except one quite obvious one!  And I'm too scared to unpick it!  So I shall leave it for Gemma to ponder :)

New York Beauty

I chose the orange, purple, pink and reddish floral first, then threw the yellow in for POW factor.  I think it worked?  The turquoise Art Gallery print was added after some consultation with Gemma.  Blue wasn't in her colour palette, but when i think of Gemma, the first colour that comes to mind is turquoise! I think it works perfectly.  The next stressful decision was the centre circle.  I spent a considerable amount of time auditioning fabric, before once again handing the choice over to Gem!  I think her choice is spot on.

New York Beauty

After working myself up over how difficult this block was going to be, I have to be honest and say that it really wasn't bad at all!  In fact, it's all rather straight forward paper piecing.  The curves had me worried, but turned out to be not so bad after all!  The tricky(ish) part is putting your four quadrants together.  Matching the seams is daunting, and I had to make sure to use quite a few pins, which for someone who doesn't usually pin - was quite amusing!  The lining up of the text wasn't really a fluke, I made sure when cutting the wedge shaped pieces out, that I cut them around in a circle.  The part I am most proud of, is the matching up of seams on the "sun rays" at each quarter!  They are perfect-o!

Soooo, where to now?  Well, I must say I am keen to get my New York Beauty on again!  In fact, I'd LOVE to have a bit of a sew along.  Make sure you check back here in the very near future, and I will have some more info to share!

Have you ever wanted to tackle a New York Beauty?  Want to join me?

I'm linking up - You can too!


Sew Cute Tuesday


Fresh Poppy Design


Paper Piecing Party

16 comments:

  1. Wow Melissa that is amazing! Taking a deep breath and jumping in is the best way!

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  2. Absolutely beautiful Midge! Thank you xxx

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  3. APPLAUSE!!! I have admired NYB quilts from afar for awhile - your block turned out beautifully! I'm still skeered of them ;) I'll just look at yours for now. . .

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  4. Gorgeous! Never pick all the character out of a block. You made the right choice, it wasn't even noticeable. :)

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  5. I have wanted to try one for ages... I will keep my eyes open for something good!

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  6. yum, I love a NYBeauty. Like anything, it's possible, one bite at a time.
    LeeAnna
    lapaylor.blogspot.com

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  7. its on my to try list since ages, but it still looks so scary difficult to me that I havent tried it yet

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  8. fabulous block and i bet it looks even more striking in person! great job lining things up. i am going to start mine today. did you sew the curves with paper on or off? and did you sew the pieces togther from the inside to the top or the larger pieces to the smallest?

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  9. I can see the four quadrants being tedious to match up. The colors are bright and a perfect harmony of BOLD!!

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  10. Well Now.... there's no way I'd have guessed you were a beginner at these fiddly babies.... I'd say you nailed it!

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  11. Wow! It's amazing! So dazzling to look at.

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  12. Wow! That is spectacular! Love the color scheme--especially against that grey! You did a fantastic job on this! :)

    Would love for you to stop by and link this up to Fabric Frenzy Friday!
    -Lindsey
    Fabric Frenzy Friday

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  13. It looks great! And I would like to sew along with New York Beauty

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  14. This is gorgeous!!

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Thanks for taking the time to leave me a comment - I read each and every one of them! xx

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