"NEW YORK STATE OF MIND" - ONE BLOCK WONDER

Another challenge quilt between Lorraine and myself from the book " One Block Wonder" by Maxine Rosenthal.

The fabric, purchased at "The City Quilter" in New York is part of their Grand Central Line.

It's just magnficent fabric, soft and has a great hand.

This quilt was relatively fast to put together, but to arrange the blocks, I would use the camera on my phone to get the blocks in the right spot. I would then put it on black and white to check the tone.

I did have to get the inner borders and the back (same line) on a random unplanned trip to NYC last July.

I managed to get the to finished in time for the Scquilters Restreat in Canberra.

Just love this.

Quilted by Sharon Vickridge- Smith with a New York Skyline pattern.

CHALLENGE: ONE BLOCK WONDER -SCQUILTERS CANBERRA RETREAT 2015- PART SIX

You'll have to excuse the outer edges around the top, but this is the biggest piece of floor I have. This is my One Block Wonder, just the flimsy but ready to go to the quilter (as soon as the back is pieced).
I Love it. I think it looked best far away, but love it.
The inner borders are fabrics from the same NYC Grand Central Lind and the main border is 6" of the original fabric. The back will be the same blue as the inner border.
Happy Quilting. Next time you see this one it will be finished.

CHALLENGE: ONE BLOCK WONDER -SCQUILTERS CANBERRA RETREAT 2015- PART FIVE

15/07/15

Vertical strips are now all together, so now just to sew each of the long seams together to make the top.

That will be tomorrow's job. 

CHALLENGE: ONE BLOCK WONDER -SCQUILTERS CANBERRA RETREAT 2015- PART FOUR

13/07/15 Managed to get 2 rows sewn tonight. Once again, so glad I took the photo of the layout.

14/07/15

Managed to get rows 7, 8 and 9 sewn today and then row 1,2,3 and 4 (bottom photo).

Hope you are enjoying watching this come together as much as I am.

CHALLENGE: ONE BLOCK WONDER -SCQUILTERS CANBERRA RETREAT 2015- PART THREE

And so here we are with the first 2 rows being sewn into strips. So glad I took the photos. I stcked up and put sticky notes but the photos sure help making sure you have everything in the right position.
Will have it sewn together before I go away so will definitely be able to sew those borders on before heading to retreat. #notchasingmytail

CHALLENGE: ONE BLOCK WONDER -SCQUILTERS CANBERRA RETREAT 2015- PART TWO

09/07/2015
So managed to get all the blocks sewn yesterday before I went out for dinner at 6pm.
Pinned them together when I got back in.
Tonight was design night... on my design floor.
Going to let it sit for a while. Took photos so I can put back together tomorrow to start sewing together.
Will be getting some co-ordinating fabric for borders in NYC and it will be a race to get them on before heading to Canberra for the retreat.
Definitely a quilt that looks better from afar.
I actually got a better vision by looking at the camera on my phone. It actually helped me decide where  to put the blocks which I was struggling with at the start.

First lot of blocks down

Halo my quilt inspector

Vertical view

Horizontal

CHALLENGE: ONE BLOCK WONDER -SCQUILTERS CANBERRA RETREAT 2015- PART ONE

So for the Canberra retreat, only Lorraine and I are doing a book challenge this year. Aunty Anne focussed on finishing UFM's (unfinished masterpieces).  We chose One Block Wonder by Maxine Rosenthal.



Click here to go to Amazon for the book.

28/06/15
It took me a long time to find a fabric but I got the fabric below, called Grand Central, which I got from the City Quilter in New York. It's just divine and it's New York and it's got trains and it is about travel. Many of my favourite topics on one fabric. It is the most lush blue. the photo doesn't quite do it justice. It a very calming blue.
It also took me a long time (3 months) to get the courage to cut as well. With the challenge quilts I like to just do that, nothing else. So once I finally get the courage to cut, I like to keep going. It would be hard for me to get more of this fabric sent before end of July, so I make sure I read first, read again and then read at least one more time. I also have a bit of a rule not to cut fabric much after 7:30 pm. Eyes are tired, brain is tired. No point cutting fabric and messing it up when you can wait until morning and do it right.

Fabric finally aligned- took me about six goes.

I am sure some fabrics just go together quite easily. 

I am sure that it was also the operator being very retentive.

29/06/15

Got the courage to cut my first strip this evening. See below for some sample blocks from the first strip. 

06/07/15
So I have made about 15 blocks on the left there and am designing the others as I go.
Haven't cut all the fabric yet but thought I would sew some blocks for something different to do.
Quite a nice quick process this part.