The Manhattan Quilt

First things first: A big thank you to everyone who celebrated my 2-year anniversary with me last week – you visited my blog, left a lovely comment and started following my blog. The winner of my blog-anniversary giveaway is Barbara W. Congratulations, Barbara. I will mail you the parcel this week.

For Throwback Thursday hosted by Andree at Quilting & Learning – What a Combo! , I want to show the Manhattan quilt. I made this quilt for my friend, Indu, who lives in New York and thinks that the Big Apple is the only city worth living in :-). Every time I visit NYC (my favorite city, btw), she takes us around to the most interesting places, hole-in-the-wall joints as well as Michelin star restaurants with unbelievably awesome food, interesting places of Hollywood fame or notoriety, and everything in between.

This quilt was also a turning point in my quilting career. This was probably the second quilt that I did free motion quilting on my domestic machine. I went all out with a Manhattan skyline, a bridge, and countless feathers and swirls. Just loved the creative process of FMQ and decided to splurge on a long-arm at the International Quilt festival in Houston. My next major quilt after this, the Magic Triangles for my dad, was quilted on a long arm. Similar designs but different machine. Since then FMQ has been a big part of all my work.

I used the cool colors from a FQ bundle of Blueberry Park by Karen Lewis for Robert Kaufmann, Kona White background and a blue and white striped binding. Since I quilted this on a domestic, I quilted them in sections – the center diagonal and the two corner triangles – and put them together with a white sashing in the front and the striped fabric in the back. It makes the back interesting as well. The two fabrics in the back are both from Joann’s. One is a blue world map fabric and the other has the constellations. The pictures were taken in Bar Harbor, Maine, where our families met for a week-long vacation that summer.

April One Monthly Goal (OMG): For the record, my March OMG was to finish the Modern Plus sampler quilt top. I could not finish it. I made good progress but my Bali Sunrise took up so much time, I could not finish my OMG. For April, I want to finish piecing this quilt top. I found the blocks stashed in a shoe box when I was “cleaning” my sewing room. This is probably from 2 or 3 years ago. The pattern is Summer in the Park from a Missouri Star Quilt video. I used a number of green strips and a gold/orange floral print on a white background. This is a really cool pattern that goes together quite fast. I can’t remember why it remains a UFO. My goal for April is to at least piece the top.

Like magic! 15 flower basket blocks, 20 pieces per block, one AccuQuilt Go! and three different dies – ready in 30 minutes! This is for my April Island Batik Ambassador challenge.

I will be part of the Be A Diamond blog hop hosted by Carol of Just Let Me Quilt. I have designed a new pattern and the fabric. Hoping to start construction this weekend.

Link-ups:
One monthly Goal
Throwback Thursdays
Let’s Bee Social
Midweek Makers
Wednesday Weight loss
Needle and Thread Thursday
TGIFF at Slice of Pi
Whoop Whoop Friday
Friday Foto fun
Finished or not Friday
Freemotion Mavericks

Petunia House, Bar Harbor, Maine.