Key Lime Galaxy (New York Beauty)

This is my own crazy design.  I wanted to try my hand at making the New York Beauty block.  But far be it from me to just do a standard block...  Nope - make them big and stretch them out.  I did this using EQ7.  Worked like a dream - it drafts the blocks instantly so there is no struggling with the math of having to do the elongated blocks and then it prints out the papers needed for the paper piecing.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

Above - the EQ7 design sketch.  I don't fuss a lot about getting the colours to match up exactly because I usually don't know what colours I'm going to use, exactly.  Depends on what I have.  But I did have a general idea of the colours based on a bundle of fat quarters I wanted to use - and I have a ton of that lime green.

Above - the finished top - it's actually pretty close to the sketch.  Below - locked and loaded - ready for quilting.

Above - all quilted and bound.  Below, close ups of the quilting.  Lots of ruler work - but also lots of freehand.  Notes for the quilters out there:  I didn't spend a lot of energy/time quilting in the printed areas because it just wouldn't show up.  But, as usual, I went a little nuts in the solid areas where the custom quilting would show up.  Also - my original intention was to leave the grided areas unquilted, but in the end, I put the grid into them because some of them were just too big and needed something.

I named it "Key Lime Galaxy" because I was thinking stars.  I Googled "star names" and one of the hits that came up was Fantasy Name Generator with a sub-page Galaxy Names.  One of the names that it generated for me was "Lemon Galaxy".  I thought "close - but not quite right - quilt is lime green".  So I thought "Lime Galaxy" - then I thought "Key Lime Galaxy".   My mind works in a weird sort of way I think.  Either that or I'm always thinking about food.... (Key Lime Pie).