Maritime Beauty Workshop

 

Maritime Beauty Table Topper Workshop

What:  Friday August 5, 2022 as part of the Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival

Where:  Amherst, Nova Scotia

Who: Taught by Karen Neary

When: 9:30-3:30

Cost: $85.

In this workshop, students will make a table topper with New York Beauty blocks.  The Maritime Beauty pattern is a great learning piece, as it encompasses so many techniques in a do-able sized project: sewing curves, piecing sharp spikes, and making and applying bias binding to a curved edge. There are also 4 inside corners to turn when binding. Instead of regular foundation piecing, we will do paperless paper-piecing (also known as freezer paper piecing) which results in perfect points with no messy paper to remove afterwards. Students will be shown a quick and easy way to make multiple copies of the foundation for future projects without tracing or photocopying.  This will be a full day class; the bias binding application will be a demonstration only, providing students with instruction on how to proceed once the project is quilted at home. This is not a difficult piece, but best suited to those with some quilting experience (i.e., mastery of the 1/4” seam allowance.)

This table topper is my original design, and the class fee includes the pattern and enough foundations to make the Maritime Beauty. (There will also be a special surprise from our sponsor, Aurifil!) Students will supply their own fabrics. Prior to the class, templates will be sent to each participant so that the centre blocks may be cut out ahead of time.  Doing this means some will finish the piecing of the Maritime Beauty in class. 

Registration is via email to karen@karenneary.ca.  Your spot is confirmed once payment is received (etransfer is preferred, but other arrangements can be made. There are a limited number of seats available, so please do not send money until your spot is confirmed via email.) There are no refunds, however I will work with you to find a replacement if unable to attend. 

Thank you!

A Fussy Beauty

I love seeing email with a paperclip icon arrive from Joanne Colleaux of Armstrong, B.C., as she always sends something special.  This time is no exception.

Awhile back, Joanne saw this fussy cut version of Maritime Beauty I had made from Hoffman batik snowflakes.

My original piece looked like this one below: fussy cutting the snowflakes certainly brought it to life!

Joanne decided to do the same, but with my Beauty of Christmas pattern. This pattern was written having the curved seams appliqued instead of pieced.

 Here's how Joanne's turned out - a far cry from the original!

 I *love* the warm coffee/mocha colours of the fabrics she has chosen, and the subtle arrangement of lights and darks, both in the spikes and the background wedges under the spikes. The arcs were foundation-pieced by machine, but the rest of the sewing was done by hand, Joanne's preferred method to ensure perfect placement of the motifs. ("fussy" indeed *-)

 Joanne writes, "I used gold thread for quilting within the batik motifs, which brightened them up considerably; just following the shapes seemed to be the only reasonable way for me to quilt within them...I am definitely pleased with the outcome"

 What a clever (and brave) way she has added her label, penned directly on the quilt back.

Thanks so much for sharing these pictures, Joanne - fabulous work as always.  You can see more of Joanne's magic at these links:
Farrago: http://sewkaren-lycreated.blogspot.ca/2011/08/pacific-west-quilt-show.html
Ostentation: http://sewkaren-lycreated.blogspot.ca/2015/05/joannes-ostentation.html

Maritime Beauty Redux

Nancie Wiseman Attwater of CA needed something eye-popping for her new table, and this Maritime Beauty she created certainly fit the bill.  Using Kaffe Fasset brights along with Moda solids, her beauties look like big, beautiful blossoms. Over-the-top gorgeous, Nancie!

You can see she has changed the inside of the centre blocks,adding smaller spikes in the quarter circle. She writes, "I love the way the colors all went together This is a great first time pattern for New York Beauties."  Nancie was so pleased with her results, she made another, smaller piece, which turned out equally gorgeous. Thanks so much for sharing the pictures, Nancie.

You can download the pattern for Maritime Beauty here.

Snow Beauty

Before presenting a workshop, I always sew a new version of the project to have it fresh in my mind.  When preparing for the recent class on Maritime Beauty, I decided to give my project a bit more zing. Here's the result, and even though I've named it "Snow Beauty", it really is :)

I used beautiful Hoffman batiks, printed with snowflakes, in black and greys.

 The large snowflakes were fussy cut for the centre, and for the semi-circles on each end.

There was enough solid black around the snowflakes that I could cut plain background pieces to square out the centre sections.

I chose a medium grey Aurifil thread (#2610) for piecing.  When it came time to quilt, Aurifil #4060, which is a very subtle white to medium-dark grey variegated, was a perfect choice to blend with the batiks.

My quilting was free-form ice shards.  The spikes of the New York Beauty block make a perfect halo around the batik snowflakes.

I am really, really pleased with how this turned out.  

The pattern for original Maritime Beauty may be downloaded here.

A Slew Of Maritime Beauties

Maritime Beauty continues to be a very popular pattern.

Here is a sampling of pictures of Maritime Beauty for inspiration in choosing your colours. This is the original version...and still my favourite!

Hoffman snowflakes are fussy cut to fit the space.

Nancie Wiseman Attwater of CA used bright Kaffe Fasset prints. 

I do apologize to the following makers for not adding their names here - please feel free to shout out if you see yours posted. They've all been identified in past posts.

 (Chris McCarthy - this one of your cat still cracks me up!!! :)

This totally scrappy one of Gail's is one of my favourites.

 This is a new picture in today from Myrna Allison;  you may recall Myrna recently shared her Roundabout Again .The directions for this placemat are included in the Maritime Beauty pattern, which Myrna made this weekend on retreat: Love the colours!