"I LOVE NY" 4/05

This was my first challenge quilt, made for "The City Quilter" located in Manhattan. The challenge fabric is the grey mottled one with scenes from NYC, hence the inspiration and the title. I actually have never been in the shop because of my toddling responsibilities, but I hear it's quite artsy and cool. Perhaps next month when they reveal the new challenge fabric, now that my little guy is another year older, I'll finally make it there.

I am proud of this quilt for many reasons, but mostly because I did finish it on time despite the fact it was an extremely stressful time. It is a power quilt in that I learned many techniques and jump started my quilting repertoire. It was my first time foundation piecing, curved piecing, using thin borders, trapunto (the heart), and free motion and echo quilting (around the logo). The applique was hand done, but I had done that before on a quilt that is yet unfinished. I actually took the logo from an umbrella that I photocopied (that was quite a challenge, too). I had been wondering where I would get the logo from, and was unable to obtain it online. Then one day when I dropped my son off at school I noticed his teacher with the umbrella.

I designed the NY beauty block myself, with a little help from Dad and a review of angles, degrees, and protractor and compass. Of course I had to have 5 spires, and none of my books had a block with just that many. I used taxicab yellow and alternated with black to continue the bold NY statement in an internal arc, and the idea for that came from Ms. Liberty herself - underneath her spires are a series of windows (which I had the pleasure of viewing from the inside as a child, again, thanks to Dad).

Also cool to note, the thin black border is full of sparkles, and looked to me like freshly paved asphalt, with it's recycled glass shining in sunlight. Finally the zebra print to complete the "asphalt jungle." I had actually wanted to add some great features to this quilt, but I'll not speak of them here, as I believe this will be a revisited piece, and want to save them for "I Love NY II."