A Celebration of Color: Pinwheels

The International Quilt Festival is having a quilt contest debuting at the April 2018 quilt show called The Celebration of Color. There are three categories-traditional, modern and art. I entered a quilt last year in the modern category and it made …

The International Quilt Festival is having a quilt contest debuting at the April 2018 quilt show called The Celebration of Color. There are three categories-traditional, modern and art. I entered a quilt last year in the modern category and it made the cut. IQF also chose to have the exhibit on display at the Houston show last November which was an honor. This time around I was inspired by a traditional New York Beauty block. I found a new book recently by accident on Pinterest called "New York Beauties & Flying Geese" by Carl Hentsch. I loved the combo of New York Beauty blocks and curved flying geese. The version I selected used 32 different colors which excited me because I love scrappy quilts and I was again feeding my OCD for color order and the color wheel!! I used fabrics from my stash which were not used from some other quilt I never made plus I added some of the new Alison Glass Chroma fabrics!! They are so lovely!!

This is paper piecing and one must psych up for the mess of the paper removal! The curved flying geese blocks ended up small and pinning and matching two sizes of flying geese on a curve proved to be a challenge. Each block was 20" and the rules state the minimum size is 48." I added a 6.5" border of white background fabric and each border got a simple New York beauty block using a rainbow of colors to repeat the motion of color. It is 51.5" square.  I added a multi colored print for the centers and I also used it for the binding. It has circles which repeated the circles in the New York Beauty blocks. I titled the quilt "Pinwheels" because when they blow in the wind they are round, colorful and have movement just like the blocks in this quilt!!

The quilt was quilted with only white thread. I quilted "the Hell out of it" and used 8 bobbins just to quilt it!!  I used a lot of diagonal and radiating lines to quilt the blocks. I added a repeat of the corner New York Beauty blocks in the c…

The quilt was quilted with only white thread. I quilted "the Hell out of it" and used 8 bobbins just to quilt it!!  I used a lot of diagonal and radiating lines to quilt the blocks. I added a repeat of the corner New York Beauty blocks in the centers of the outer borders with quilting only then filled in the rest of the borders with a variegated striped effect with stitching. which gave nice texture when the light bounced off of the quilt and created shadows!!

I tacked a small crocheted "thingie" which was rainbow colored to the center of the quilt to repeat the color order and bring the four circle blocks together.

The contest is due January 11. 2018 and I have been frantically sewing and quilting on this project between applying for teaching jobs at two major quilt shows, working like crazy in the hair salon in December and doing all the normal Christmas preparations I usually do each year. But it is finished and now I wait until Feb. 2. 2018 to see if it is accepted.

Another Color Wheel Obsession

I decided to have a central medallion and a center area of 24" in diameter. I chose a pattern I bought on www.crafty.com for $3.00 called New York Beauty/Curved Flying Geese. I originally saw the pattern on Pinterest. I downloaded the pattern and copied the foundation patterns using Carol Doak foundation paper in my printer. It went pretty fast because there was only four sections to work with.  Each section had 8 "spikes of color which means 32 colors in the color wheel. I found this great colorful plaid with black background which I used in the center of the New York Beauty block and the inner border to create the appropriate size of 24 1/2." I also bound the quilt with this fabric.


 Yes, I love the color wheel! I was doing color wheel themed art back in high school and it continues today. This quilt started in my 12 member block exchange group at Pine Street Quilts in Marinette, WI. Each moth one of us get to pick the block and fabrics and/or colors of the quilt. We have total control of the outcome which is nice sometimes! I chose my favorite block the Ohio Star, and since there is 12 basic colors on the color wheel I designated each one color (two fabrics) plus black for the background. I thought blue violet was the least enjoyable choice so I picked that color.
Then it was how to arrange the 12 Ohio Star blocks. Since yellow dominates over the purples I thought of the placement like the numbers on a clock. I put yellow where "1" would be and followed with the cool colors on the bottom and the warm colors on the top. I equate warm colors as visually lighter and cool colors as visually heavier. I am happy with my choice.
I quilted with black thread with lots of diagonals and stitch in the ditch around the spikes and geese. I did not add any embellishments because my plan for this quilt is a teaching tool for my color theory classes and it's about the color only.
The flying geese foundation piecing was very easy because all the lines are there to follow. Crafty is a pretty interesting websie-I encourage youe to check it out!!