sunburst | a quilt for Para

Sometimes when I make a quilt I feel like an artist instead of "just" a quilter. Making this one was like that for me as I made design and color choices and took pieces apart to adjust placement and size and scale. So often I just plow through when I do things I don't love because I have so little time to sew that changing those kinds of elements feels like too much work, but I'm really glad I made this piece exactly the way I envisioned it. I wanted something classic but current and I think I achieved that with this solid color New York Beauty block. I made it for an old friend's first baby and I knew it was going to be a special one. I asked my friend Onastazia what colors or themes she had in mind for baby things and she said neutrals, pink, and florals so my first thought was the Rifle Paper Co. for Cotton + Steel fabric I had in my stash. I planned on using the Rosa in peach on the back and pulling the colors for the front from the print. I ended up using Kona pink, salmon, curry, melon, and gold. After hours of searching I found my favorite NYB block linked on Jeni Baker's blog. I always like paper pieceing because it feels like sewing magic and this time was no different. I was in awe of my perfect points. Once the center block was done I added the pink and then two other strips of color, I don't remember which ones now, but they looked wrong. I was bummed because I expected to love the effect, which would have been a cool colorblock, or at least that's how it looked in my mind. Instead it was choppy and disjointed, so I unpicked the long seams and added only more pink. I was much more satisfied with that result and quickly settled on a plan of spiral quilting as I basted. I bound the quilt in gold and washed and dried it to get the perfect crinkle. I was so happy to be able to give it to Onastazia at her baby shower in June, and I hope her daughter loves it!