Island Batik Ambassador's Pieced to Perfection Blog Hop

This month the Island Batik Ambassadors were challenged to create a foundation paper pieced or English paper pieced project.  I have a great love for New York Beauty blocks.  I also like to make 4 of them to make a complete circle.  

For my paper pieced project I received the gorgeous Ornate Gems collection by Kathy Engle for Heidi Pridemore of The Whimsical Workshop.  When I looked ta the patterns to the fabrics I knew I wanted to make a large New York Beauty to showcase the beautiful fabrics.

I designed a simple New York Beauty block in Electric Quilt 8, but it wouldn't let me print it as large as I wanted it.  What to do?  Make a smaller print and then take it to FedEx Office to increase the size on their large scale printer.  It was more expensive than I had anticipated, but made the job so much easier!

I then cut my pieces and started paper piecing.  Here is the middle ring all complete.

The next challenge was connecting the rings to each other.  The first thing I did was stitch along the edge of the ring with no thread in the machine to perforate the fabric and the paper.  Then I peeled back about an inch of the paper and was able to glue baste the circle's seam allowance down.  This was easy due to the perforation in the fabric.

Then I pinned the rings together and sewed a 1/8" topstitch around the edge of the circle to connect the rings.  Then there was a lot of paper ripping to do!

This project got so big I finally brought up an extra table to help me pin.

I then layered my quilt with my favorite Hobbs 80/20 Poly Cotton batting and had fun quilting wavy lines radiating from the center of the quilt with Aurifil Thread and Schmetz Microtex Needles.

Here's a giveaway for some gorgeous fat quarter collections!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

See below for a list of stores who have Ornate Gems precuts available!

All About Quilts-MA MA

Bill's Sewing Machine Company NC

Calico Cat-HI HI

Cary Quilting Co-NC NC

Creekside Quilts-OR OR

Custom Stitchery-OR OR

Fat Tuesday Fabrics and Gifts LA

Hancocks of Paducah KY

Laural's Fabrics and More, LLC MN

Little Timber Quilts MT

Loose Threads-WI WI

My Favorite Quilt Store-TX TX

Pam's Fabric Nook FL

Prairie Point Quilt and Fabric Shop KS

Queen Bee Quilts WI

Quilter's Cove-OR OR

Sandy Creek Quilts WI

Texas Roots Quilting TX

The Jewel Box Fabric Shoppe KY

The Needle Workshop WI

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Check out all the other Island Batik Ambassadors!

Brenda Alburl ~ Songbird Designs

Renee Atkinson ~ Pink Tulip Quilting

Pamela Boatright ~ PamelaQuilts

Susan Deshensky ~ Lady Blue Quilts

Brittany Fisher ~ Bobbin with Brittany

Preeti Harris ~ Sew Preeti Quilts

Mania Hatziioannidi ~ Mania for quilts

Reed Johnson ~ Blue Bear Quilts

Victoria Johnson ~ Forever Quilting for You

Randi Jones ~ Randi’s Roost

Connie Kauffman ~ Kauffman Designs

Emily Leachman ~ The Darling Dogwood

Denise Looney ~ Quiltery – For The Love Of Geese

Leah Malasky ~ Quilted Delights

Maryellen McAuliffe ~ Mary Mack Made Mine

Anorina Morris ~ sameliasmum.com

Lisa Pickering ~ Lisa’s Quilting Passion

Sarah Pitcher ~ Pitcher’s Boutique

Claudia Porter ~ Create with Claudia

Lana Russel ~ Lana Quilts

Elita Sharpe ~ Busy Needle

Gail Sheppard ~ Quilting Gail

Sandra Starley ~ Textile Time Travels

Jennifer Thomas ~ Curlicue Creations

Suzy Webster ~ Websterquilt