Canadian Travelling Quilts

A while back I got an invitation asking me if I wanted to join the Canadian Travelling Quilts group.  This is a group similar to a round robin; every member makes a starting block(s) for a quilt and then sends it on to the next person on the list.  They in turn receive the start of another member’s quilt and adds something onto it.  This continues for a few months, until every member has had a turn with everyone else’s quilt.  In the last month, you baste, quilt and bind the finished quilt before it returns to its original owner.  It sounded like fun to me, so I said yes and got to thinking what I wanted to start my quilt as.

I have always loved the New York Beauty block, but for a long time, I was intimidated by it, with all its points and curves.  I decided that my skills were good enough at this point to tackle a New York Beauty, so I searched for a pattern online and found some.  I paper pieced the arcs and used the templates to cut out the other pieces.  The curves were actually easier than I expected, especially the larger curves, which went together very easily.

I couldn’t choose just one style of block, so I chose to make 4 separate ones and then just piece them all together. I used coral for all the centres and navy for all the outer curves. I used green as an accent and low volume backgrounds. I had planned to throw some grey in there, but I couldn’t seem to find a place for it. Some of the fabrics have grey accents in them, so I left it at that.

Once all the blocks were done and sewn together, I absolutely loved it. I was glad I got over my fear and just dove right into these blocks. They are so striking.

At this point, I was finished and had mentally crossed it off my to do list. But then, after I was done with the pictures, I happened to drop the block. It landed on point, the corner with the clothespin dolls in the top. And I thought, hmmm, I really like that! It reminded me the sun as it goes through the phases of the day, from sunrise, high noon, late afternoon, and sunrise. The navy ring made me think of the night sky. So I couldn’t help myself, and I put it on point.

I auditioned lots of different fabrics, and consulted Thing 1 throughout the process. Both of us liked these dandelions the best. The yellow flower centres resembled the sun rays so well, and we loved the little touches of yellow. But now I really am done with this, because if I don’t stop, it will get too big! And I’m really excited to see what happens to it before it comes back to me.