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New York Beauty quilt block made easy

by Christine Baker

I’ve always wanted to make a New York Beauty quilt and just recently quilted one on my Gammill for a customer, but they are a lot of work. I’m not big on paper piecing although I hear there are new, improved ways of doing it, however, I’ve never gotten around to making my own. That’s why I was super excited to use this panel – all the beauty of the New York Beauty quilt block made easy!

The fabrics in Northcott’s new ColorWorks Concepts line are so beautiful, I’m happy to sew these lovely fabrics together today. I already listed the cutting instructions in yesterday’s post, so if you haven’t done that yet, what are you waiting for?

Start with the main block

  • Trimmed two blocks from the panel and add a border to each of them.
  • Sew one of the 1″ x 14⅝” strips of lime fabric to each of the blocks and then sew another one to the opposite sides of each block.
  • Press towards the borders.
  • Sew the 1″ x 15½” strips of lime fabric to the remaining sides of the two blocks and press.

Sewing the borders onto the New York Beauty block

Sewing the borders onto the New York Beauty block

Flying geese borders

I love, love, love flying geese and although I have a pretty good method for making them, it does involve a lot of cutting and piecing. This fabric from Northcott makes flying geese borders fast and easy!

  • Take the four 20″ strips of flying geese fabric cut yesterday and sew one black 1¼” x 20″ strip to each of them.
  • Sew another black strip to the remaining long sides of the flying geese strips to make a total of four borders.
Adding the black fabric to the flying geese strips

Adding the black fabric to the flying geese strips

Sew it all together

Sew the 1½” x 15½” strips of teal fabric to the 1½” x 15½” strips of black fabric to make two sections.

Sewing the teal and black strips together

Sewing the teal and black strips together

Sew one of these sections to the top of each of the New York Beauty blocks. Sew one 2″ x 15½” strip of black fabric to the bottom of each New York Beauty block.

New York Beauty block with strips sewn to top and bottom

New York Beauty block with strips sewn to top and bottom

Sew one flying geese border to each side of the New York Beauty blocks to complete the front and back sections of the bag.

The finished front of the bag

The finished front of the bag

Now we quilt!

  • Center the front and back of the bag on the two pieces of interfacing and iron in place.
  • Place a silicone pressing sheet under the interfacing to prevent it from fusing to the ironing board cover. If you don’t have one of these sheets, then cut two pieces of scrap fabric 26″ x 20″ each and pin them to the back of the interfacing and iron all three layers together.
Protect your ironing board cover with a silicone pressing sheet

Protect your ironing board cover with a silicone pressing sheet

Use a walking foot to quilt the layers together if desired. I just quilted around the center blocks and down the edges of each flying geese border, but you can add as much quilting as you like. If you have any excess interfacing around the tops, trim it away now.

Machine quilting with a walking foot

Machine quilting with a walking foot

Place the front and backs of the bag right sides together and sew along the bottom edge using a ½” seam.

Sewing the front and back of the bag together along the bottom

Sewing the front and back of the bag together along the bottom

Wow – look at those blocks!

Now that the front and back of the bag are done, tomorrow we’re going to make the inside pockets. Look at the blocks we made using the ColorWorks Concepts fabrics!! I’m in love with those flying geese borders and now I’m wishing I had asked Elaine to send me more than 1m of fabric LOL. What an amazing way to make beautiful quilt blocks – I hope you agree!

Amazing flying geese borders

Amazing flying geese borders

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1 comment

Anne Gale December 8, 2016 - 8:59 am

This is one of my bucket list quilts. Thank you for the information

Reply

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