Hive #4 - February Tutorial

Hi fellow bees, to start with just a little bit about me, I wouldn't want to bore you really!

What is your name?

Celine but my "virtual" name on social media is espritpatch

Where do you live?

I live in the United Kingdom (north of London) but I am French.

Tell us about your family (Spouse, kids, grandkids, pets, etc.)

I am married to a lovely French man I met at University in France, we moved to the UK together about 13 years ago. We have 3 gorgeous children, a son nearly 8 and 2 daughters (nearly 5 and 2). The rest of our family is in France.

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting.

I started quilting over 10 years ago mainly self-taught. My Mum always used to buy lots of fabrics as she was making most of my and her clothes. I liked experimenting making clothes for my doll as a kid and then while browsing the internet in the early 2000 I came across online fabric shop and quilting etc.

How do you organize your fabric stash? (Picture appreciated)

I can't honestly put a picture of my stash, I am too ashamed as it doesn't look neat! I tend to keep it by colours in (over-flowing) white boxes from IKEA. I can't seem to find a perfect way of storing it really.

Who is/are your favorite fabric designers?

I love Japanese fabric, I love the Rain fabric available in a lovely bright rainbow of colours. I like Zen Chic, Kate Spain. I like text prints and low volume, geometric patterns or abstracts.

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting?

Applique (needle turn)

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it?

My rotary cutter because there is nothing better for straight cuts but I am sure you all have one already

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? (Could be from a book, movie, TV show, etc.)

Pass, can't think of anyone right now!

For my month, I would really love New York Beauty blocks. I have recently made this one and I am in love! I hope this is not too onerous for you as it has both paper piecing and curves.

Free patterns are available here: http://www.lenzula.de/en/pattern/free-pattern/80-new-york-beauty.html
There are 9 quarters to choose from on the website and if you click on the picture of the quarter, you will go to the pdf for the pattern.

When you print your paper piecing pattern, make sure you set your printer to not scale and that the 1' mark measures 1' on your paper too, otherwise the finish block won't be the right size. Thanks!

Each pattern has: a spiked arc (paper pieced), a quarter circle for the centre piece, 2 outside pieces  and some additional arcs or not - depending on the pattern you choose.

I would advise to cut all the pattern pieces on the cutting line (outisde line) as it makes it easier to trim/cut the fabric.

If you have other patterns you would like to use, that's fine as long as the quarter are 8.5' unfinished or 8' finished.

If you are new to paper piecing or you are not sure how to do it, I found this great tutorial on youtube: http://youtu.be/8uaW26igygE

I was planning to post pictures etc but I think a tutorial would be more useful. I use the same method but I am more lazy and only finger press my seam before adding the next piece of fabric. And I do pin my fabric on the seam line to make it easier to keep it into position before I sew them

I only paper pieced the spiked arcs.

Once the spiked arc is all pieced, I trimmed to size with the template and then removed the paper.

I only paper pieced the spiked arcs. I used the template to cut the other pieces but didn't use them to sew the pieces together as I thought it would be more difficult with the paper there.

I would prefer the spiked arc to be only 2 or 3 colours as above (ie. all the spikes in the arc the same colour or 2 colours light and darker blue above depending on the pattern and all the other peices in the arc another colour purple above)

For the curves, there are different options, some people pin a lot. I don't. I only use 3 pins

one in the centre that I find by folding my pieces of fabric in half
one of each side of the pieces, be careful to line up the edges when you pin them.

I then sew very slowly rearranging my fabric constantly as I sew to make sure the raw edges are lined up. The larger curves are easier to sew that the smaller ones! 

The outside pieces need to be sewn together before being added to the block

For the blocks, I would love bright rainbow fabrics (similar to the ones I have made already). I think blender fabrics would work much better than define patterned fabric (I used Rain in mine). I am not adverse to batiks as long as they are bright colours. I would love it if you could make 4 quarters for me but if this is too much, then please do what you feel like doing! If you do make 4 quarters or more than 1 quarter, please don't sew them together so that I can mix them up in my quilt. I am not sure I will do full circles at this stage.

Many thanks for taking the challenge and making blocks for me. I look forward to seeing them all!
Celine