Maritime Beauty Table Mat

Two weeks ago, I attended a class that Karen Neary taught. She is a well known Canadian quilt teacher and designer, who lives in nearby Nova Scotia. This class is called the Maritime Beauty. She has done many variations using just 2 blocks and if you go to her galleries on her website, you can see the various colorations.

I'm not a fan of paper piecing, but for those times when you need sharp perfect points as in this project, it's truly the answer and it is pretty quick. Ten years ago, I made a double wedding ring quilt, and I was SICK of doing curves after I finished that project, which dragged on for over a year. So so when my double wedding ring was complete, I swore I would never never do curves again. Well never has arrived and I found myself doing these simple curves in Karen's class. They were actually no trouble at all and obviously, I made a mountain out of a molehill all these years. In Karen's class, I admitted to myself I didn't mind doing small projects with curves. {You know, they say admitting your problem, is the first step to recovery :)}

The fabrics that I used for my Beauty were mostly in a bag of scraps that I had for a long time. I thought I'd use up the majority of these scraps, only to find out, that I could make 10 more Beauties like this with what I have left over. But I am not going to do that. I am going to make another Maritime Beauty in more organized colors. I just don't know what... maybe Christmas colors, or fall colors, or maybe the yellow and black one that is shown in Karen's gallery. I'll decide later.

I haven't quilted or bound this Beauty yet. I am going to wait for my new Juki and this will be my first piece that I machine quilt with it. Watch for an update in about 10 days.

Thanks for helping me get over my curves phobia Karen!!