New York Beautifying

Okay, is there such a thing as an Easter quilt? Because if so, I think I'm making one. Yes, my New York Beauty QA quilt is all bunnies and lambs and jelly-bean-bright colors. It's either going to be extremely awesome, or it'll look like an Easter basket exploded. (Or maybe it could be both? I'm hoping for both.)

About half of my fabric stack for this project is from Laurie Wisbrun's adorable springtime-bright Modern Whimsy line, and the other half are prints I pulled from my stash to coordinate with the Modern Whimsy.

And here's my first block. Just to mix things up a bit, I decided that all of my blocks will have solid white centers, and the backgrounds will all be different-colored ring prints from Modern Whimsy. I am seriously in love how Block 0 turned out. Kim of My Go-Go Life wrote a great tutorial and I urge you all to give it a try, even if you do just one block. Click here for the tutorial.

One tip for those of you quilting along: Kim strongly recommends pressing your seams open if you're making a complete circle. Me, being the rebel that I am, decided to press mine to the side anyway. I thought it would make it easier to match up the curved seams. Bad idea. Listen to Kim! My ring seams do indeed match up well, but as you can see, the block isn't laying very flat. Had I pressed my seams open, I think it would have made the difference.

The tutorial for our second block is up today at Sew Sweetness. And while you're at it, go check out the quilt-along's Flickr group for more inspiring New York Beauty blocks!