Using my stash

Two posts in two days...unbelievable!

Last March I attended the AQS show in Lancaster.  I've always loved New York Beauty type blocks and one of the vendors was Deb Karasik.  I"d looked at her website before and had seen this wall hanging called Batik Wheels but was not impressed by the colors on the pattern cover.  I know one should be able to envision something with different colors, a different setting, etc., etc., etc. but that's not something I'm able to do very well.  In any case, as a backdrop for her vending space she had this quilt in a yellow/orange color way.  I was smitten.  Bought the pattern then and there, came home, selected the fabrics and let it sit in a box ready for starting.  All the fabrics are from my stash.  I'm embarrassed to say I have a huge stash.  Now--this was 11 months ago!

 Encouraged by a friend in Nova Scotia who is working on Karen Stone's Cinco de Mayo I decided to tackle this one.  The directions are awesome!  It even comes with a little plastic rectangle to use when trimming and comes with all the papers for paper piecing.  It's a light weight velum similar to what I've purchased for paper piecing, kind of like what they use as an overlay in wedding invitations.  Tears away beautifully. BTW, originally I chose all tonal type batiks but found the look was getting kind of boring so I introduced some batiks with more obvious patterns in them.  I think it made it more interesting.  You can see another of Deb's creations on the cover of the current Quilter's Newsletter.   And I know she's the author of two books on paper piecing.

So here is the wall hanging in progress.  If you zoom in on the photo you can see a copy of the photo which Deb allowed me to take at the quilt show.  You can see there a huge number of spikes in the other border.  I have not put any of the circles together at this point, waiting to see if anything needs to be repositioned.  BTW, orange has become my new"go to" color.  Love it!