Gotta Do It MY Way!

Even though I mentioned this quilt in the last post about the fall classes I will be teaching I never really focused on this particular quilt here.  It isn't brand new and my mind is on what I am working on now so I guess it slipped through the cracks!
A group of my quilting friends made plans to get together to make a lovely version of a New York Beauty quilt.  They were spending a long weekend at the lake doing it and just enjoying the devoted time to sewing and camaraderie.  I needed to come & go and I just couldn't bring myself to completely recreate someone else's very detailed and involved pattern.  I had been itching to get out of that rut of reduplication, besides, THIS wasn't what modern quilting is all about!
I made one traditional block exactly as the pattern instructed.
 Hmmm.
It is now part of the backing.
The group LOVES batiks....
                                           - me...
                                                     - not so much.
BUT I must be missing something?  I had purchased everything I needed to make the original quilt - batiks and all.
So I used the batiks and I must say in this application I was quite pleased.  Quilter's Linen by Robert Kaufman - now that pulled it all together for me.
This pattern does require paper-piecing, but, once you get that down it makes the most beautiful points in the rays.  Again, LOTS of negative space to quilt to abandon and just make it your own! The other adaptability of this pattern is placing the blocks in any format you like.
I have had a lot of interest in this quilt - I think it evokes a real sense of tradition in quilters who love traditional quilts but are feet-first in the modern quilting world - with me  US!

By the way (NOT at all a postscript) the gorgeous quilting was done by Jennifer McClanahan.