Quilting Connections

Life is all about connecting. Networking and teamwork are paramount to any successful endeavour. When things come together it's a pretty wonderful feeling!
Because our Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival will roughly coincide with the release of my new book on New York Beauty quilts (being published by AQS in Paducah, Kentucky) my focus for festival this year made sense to be NY Beauty related.  I decided to make a New York Beauty quilt to donate as a fundraiser to the festival.  Mrs. Pugsley's Emporium chimed in and went one better for her contribution to the festival by donating a trip for two to New York City.  Wow!!!!

I set to work on a new design that would somehow connect to NY and capture the essence of the city for which the block is named. I thought of blue/greens for the water, blue sky, the spikes of the Chrysler Building and Statue of Liberty, and a splash of yellow and black chequerboard to call to mind the iconic taxi cabs. My quilt is named New York, New York...which brings to mind the line from Sinatra's song. Here's how the quilt turned out:

It's vibrant and busy like the city itself. Machine pieced and quilted with gorgeous hand-dyed Hoffman batiks, New York, New York features free form feather quilting and a hand-stitched binding on the scalloped edge. (Seen in person, you realize that no one does batiks like Hoffman of California. They are spectacular.)

Even the construction was by no means a solo undertaking;  Faithful Polly was ever-present ensuring those points were sharp.

On a lark, I contacted Heather McArthur of Quilter's Connection magazine in British Columbia to see if she would like to offer the pattern in her publication.  She loved it and was kind enough to fast-track it into the  fall issue so the magazine would be out in time to coincide with our festival.  Thank you Heather, we appreciate the effort it took for you to accommodate us.  Next I connected with the multi-talented Cheryl Coville from Ontario to ask her to check my instructions.  In addition to being a trained fine artist who has authored a couple of books, and designs unique "fusion" knitwear, Cheryl also used to be an editor for a quilt magazine. (What a handy friend to pull out of your pocket *-)  

Cheryl worked her magic in double time; the quilt got sent off to the editor, and voila...it made the cover.  I know I am biased, but what a stunning photograph!

Mrs. Pugsley has ordered a whole carton of these  magazines for her Emporium!  They are available for purchase now, and during Fibre Arts Festival.

Quilter's Connection is a beautiful publication and we are so proud it's published right here in Canada.  For international readers, the magazine is available at this link as a digital download from the Quilter's Connection website for a very modest $4.95.  It includes all instructions for the projects pictured, including of course New York, New York. (There is one more surprise in the issue I would love to share, but it's not my news so I will wait until someone else mentions it on her blog...)
The quilt is on display now at Mrs Pugsley's Emporium, where the tickets to win the quilt - or a trip to New York! - are also on sale.  Stop in and pick up a copy of this lovely magazine.
Because of these connections made from Amherst, to Kentucky, California, British Columbia, Ontario and back to Amherst again... you may actually get to wake up in the city that never sleeps.
It truly takes a lot of team work to make something like this happen and I am so grateful to have the help and support of such a fabulous crew.