Dear Jane Revisited

I restarted my Dear Jane journey with a lovely new bolt of white muslin and my existing stash of batiks.  I spent way too much time on my last DJ, all 9 blocks of it, deciding which block to do next. This time I'm tackling the blocks first a row, then a column at a time.  I selected and pre-washed fabric for the entire first row, then got started. Here is Block A-1, Pinwheel Gone Awry. 

I've decided to rotary cut whenever possible, so A-1 was done that way.  Paper piecing was a better choice for block A-2 called "One, Two Buckle My Shoe".

I'm making my DJ a trip around the world in seven colors, with lots of variation planned in value, hue and tint. I probably already have 50% or more of the batiks I'll need, but except for the upcoming Dallas Quilt Celebration next month, I'm not planning to load up on more right away.  I think by doing first a row, then a column (including the triangles) my current subset of batiks will get widely spaced in the quilt.

I went through my entire stash, pulling all the true batiks.  I was amazed by how many lovely batik prints I have.  I'm not using the the print batiks though, not because I'm a purist, but because true batiks are reversible.  I can just see myself noticing at the very end of completing a 40+ piece block that one of the tiny pieces has been reversed.  Argh!  Sticking with true batiks removes this complication completely.  As Forrest Gump would say, "One less thing."

It was fun selecting 15 batiks for row A.  Who knows if I'll even finish row A, much less the whole quilt, but I know I'll never finish it if I don't at least start it!  I promised myself that if I do finish this DJ I will have earned the right to a long-arm machine if I still want one.  I told my DH this quilt was my quilting Master's Degree.  He said it was more like a PhD, but I told him doctoral projects had to be original, and this is as derivative as it gets.  lol