Dear Jane H-2 Jacob Anthony Complete

I did quite a bit of hand work on vacation.  There is nothing like sitting next to someone who is coming out of anesthesia for getting hand work done.  First they're awake and talking, then they're asleep, lather, rinse, repeat.  Larry and I sat quietly by Kathi's bedside after her ankle surgery, tatting  and sewing respectively.  It was actually very relaxing after the long drive to Chicago.  The first thing I did was to sew the tatting onto Grandma's hankie.  Sewing on tatting takes forever, even though there was not nearly enough tatting to circumnavigate the hankie.

The first night we spent at Kathi's there was a power outage. There is nothing like being in a strange home in pitch dark, trying to find flashlights, candles and matches.  One of Kathi's kind neighbors helped us out, but we ended up going to bed very early.  I did manage to get the triangles prepped for the Jacob Anthony block the second night we spent in Chicago.

H-2  Jacob Anthony

I like how Jacob Anthony turned out; a nice, serene brown block. It certainly spent lots of time half finished; I had already completed the center of the block by June first.  It was nice to finally trim it down, as the muslin ground had gotten very wonky and raggedy.

I found out yesterday that Kathi gets out of rehab on the twenty-first.  I'm sure she is ready to go home!  After that, she has another three weeks with no weight on her left foot; then she'll have a walking cast for a few weeks.  I hope she finds the quilting area we put together useable, and does not have to send her friends to the basement too many times on "treasure" hunts - that could get old very fast.  

More Dear Jane progress on H-2, Jacob Anthony and C-4, Tic Tac Toe

I decided to go with applique on the Dear Jane, Tic Tac Toe block to avoid any inset seams.  I created an octagonal pattern out of freezer paper, then pressed it to the back of the block.  The points where all the seams come together were a bit tricky to work with, but it is all basted now.  There was not very much of the dark green fabric left, so the one dark window looks odd to me.  We'll just say it adds interest and move on.  Now I just have to find the time to do the actual applique. 

I had already forgotten the name of the "Jacob Anthony" Dear Jane block, but I did not forget that it still needed triangles appliqued.   The triangles have been made for over a week; they finally got basted down yesterday.

I am looking forward to trimming both blocks to size, then moving on to a different block.  Tic tac toe was lots of work!  In the meantime, we have a wedding to attend, and our friend broke her ankle, so we have been very very busy.  More later.

Dear Jane M-2, Duff's Bluff Completed

Duff's Bluff turned out even prettier than I thought it would, despite its extra silly name.  I love the hint of indigo with the turquoise.  It is amazing how many of the blocks have some version of a nine patch as part of their composition.  I have not done a counting; but it seems as if nine patch and four patch variations, in some form or another, account for about a third of the Dear Jane blocks.  I will have to do analyze the blocks to see if I am correct.

M-2 Duff's Bluff

I will be switching to Grand Illusion now.  Clue five is so small compared to the other clues that I hope to finish it in a few days.  I am not going to kill myself trying to get all the Harlequin blocks put together either. Instead, I am going to complete the big bow-tie step, then move on.  In fact, I have decided to shorten the amount of time I spend on any one project, and cycle through them more rapidly.  I do not mind working on one thing for a long time; however, it certainly makes for dull blogging - and nobody wants that!

Dear Jane M-2 Duff's Bluff

The last block in column 2, Duff's Bluff, is in the works.  I think it is going to be beautiful when it is done.  I love this blue on blue batik; it reminds me of a painting of a celestial sky.  Most of the dark blue was edited out for this block, but I am going to find another block later where the dark blue can be the focal point.  Ah, the joy of batiks!

Well, we had our new vehicle checked out by a mechanic and it passed muster, so I guess we will keep it.  Larry was pleased since it takes about four hours to purchase a car these days.  I have yet to drive it myself, maybe this weekend I will get behind the wheel.

I pulled out the directions to Clue 5 of Grand Illusion this week since that is my next project.  I had forgotten the printer was running out of ink when I printed the pages.  My colors are so far off I had to study other people's completed quilts to determine what was what.  As far as I can tell on my set of directions, white means turquoise, deep yellow means yellow, pale yellow means pink and black is black.  Believe me, I wrote this down right on the picture!

Dear Jane L-2 Stephanie's Snowflake

I am so glad this one is done.  The Dear Jane software really messed up the order of work on this block.  The foundation pieces created by the software had you making inset seams instead of treating the center section like a simple nine patch.  Why would they do that?  I questioned the pattern too.  The long skinny pieces were supposed to be pieced, with the tiny little point being its own piece, orange onto orange.  What is the point of that?  I looked closely at L-2 in the book and it did not look as if it was made in two pieces to me, so I combined them.   

This block turned out to be more appealing than I thought it would; probably because it is such a cheerful batik.  I wonder if my whole mood working on this block was not affected by the fact that the orange fabric was heavily starched.  I used to do that because someone recommended it, but it was nothing but trouble, so I stopped.  This block is proof, at least for me, that unstarched fabric behaves much better than starched.  I have lots of the orange fabric left; I think I will wash out the starch before I use it again.  I should have done that in the first place! lol

I am planning to do one more Dear Jane block before switching back to doing Clue 5 of Grand Illusion, which, by the way, has already been removed from Bonnie Hunter's web site.  The pattern will not be available again until it gets published in one of her books several years from now.

Dear Jane K-2, Grandpa's Chickens

I love this block, though it was kind of boring to do.  How many Dear Jane blocks have six identical paper pieced sections?  Lots have four sections that are the same, but six?  I could have strip pieced it, but I doubt my squares would have come out as square; paper-piecing is much more accurate for me.

The Dear Jane software messed up on the outer edges of this block. One of the long white edges came out way too short.  I had to cut another one to make up for it.  I hate it when that happens!  I am working on L-2 now, and, as expected, it is being a real PITA.  I think I should have it done by tomorrow.  

I was very pleased with Larry's car selection yesterday.  He hunted and searched online until he found a 2013 model with only 8800 miles on it down in Houston.  We have been known to put that many miles on a car in six months.  lol  I am not too keen on black with a black interior, but for a cream puff like this, I will make an exception.

Dear Jane J-2, Picture Perfect

"Picture Perfect" was completed at the Blanketeer project day on Friday.  We had a lovely get together, and I got lots done, including this block and half of K-2, Grandpa's Chickens.  The only thing surprising with this block was how hard it was to edit out the orange - that stuff was everywhere!

The potluck was awesome, as usual, but the highlight of the day for me, was definitely when my friend, Renee, showed up as surprise. I had not seen Renee since she retired last year, but she and fellow Blanketeer, Sheila, both attend Holy Redeemer where we hold our project days.  Renee wanted to surprise me, so she had Sheila keep her in the loop about our project day schedule.  

Renee joined us right before lunch and we chattered away, catching up with life since October.  It was really wonderful to see her again!  We had teamed up two years ago and just really clicked.  Now we just need to convince her to take up quilting....

Dear Jane Fabric for J-2, Picture Perfect

I am having trouble selecting the batik for my next yellow block. The closest yellow is bright lemon, so I want to choose a deeper and richer yellow for this block.  The yellow fabric on the left would make a good background for an applique block; it would cause a mishmash on one that is paper-pieced like Picture Perfect.  The one on the right is the perfect color, but is a marble identical to the green block next door.  Larry suggested I edit out the dark orange in the middle batik and use that; I believe we have a winner.

Fabric Choices for Dear Jane J-2

All these decisions!  At least when I am visiting Grandma, I can occupy my time with very little thought.  I just pick up the pink scarf and continue where I left off.  Do until done, and done is when the skein of yarn is used up.

I love this stitch.  It is Knit 1, Purl 1, but every knit is worked into the stitch below the current row.  It makes it nice and poofy.  It is a bear to correct when you drop a stitch though; it does not follow the rules.  Grandma's long, heavy, metal needles kept sliding right out of the knitting and landing on the floor.  I ended up buying a set of short, very light-weight, bamboo double-pointed needles, and a set of removable rubber point balls.  When I am done knitting, the ball comes off the empty needle and is placed on the point of the full needle.  So far, no stitches have been dropped.

Dear Jane I-2 - Kaye's Courtyard

This simple little block gave me no end of trouble.  In the first place, I made all three checkerboards exactly the same.  I had to pull a white end off of the center slice and replace it with a green end on the other side.  As if that was not bad enough, I stitched a tiny little wrinkle in one of the seams, then sewed a green "ear" onto it before I noticed.  That only took me two tries to correct.  lol Honestly, it is surprising it turned out as well as it did.

I-2  Kaye's Courtyard

It was hard to decide between two scrap batiks for this block. Since the corners are so large, I had considered fussy cutting a green batik with large diamonds to showcase the diamonds, but in the end, I decided to go with something simpler.  No fussy cutting for this one, except starting with the darker, more mottled end of the scrap.  

Dear Jane H-2 - Jacob Anthony

The Jacob Anthony block is almost complete; however, I have not yet appliqued the remaining triangles outside the diamond.  I like how this one turned out so far.  (I know, I know, I say that for practically every Dear Jane block; I must really like batiks, or something!)  

H-2  Jacob Anthony

The soft browns in this fabric work well in this block.  I decided to avoid most of the really pale tan and all of the dark grey to achieve the desired calm look.  Since the fabric has lots of the brown, I just cut a long narrow strip and edited the fabric from there.

Batik selected

I think I will use this batik again as the background for an appliqued block, then I can leave in some of the grey and tan.  It is nice to use the same batiks in different ways so the blocks coordinate without being matchy matchy.

I bought an entire bolt of white muslin to use on Dear Jane, based on the DJ list recommendation of 20 yards for foundation piecing.  I have been cutting off about a yard at a time and using that up before cutting more.  The second yard is down to a small scrap after about 44 blocks and four triangles.  I should have some yardage left, even if I use the muslin for the backing.  I wonder how they came up with 20 yards?  I do not think I am being that careful, and I have certainly made plenty of cutting mistakes. 

Wordless Friday

Dear Jane G-2, Mohawk - Lesson Learned

Jane got me again.  After I had completed all four paper-pieced strips I tried to put them together according to the picture in the book. No matter how I shifted the pieces, it would not work. Uh oh, this block was supposed to be mirrored.  Rats!  I wish I could tell just by looking which blocks require mirroring, but I do not seem to have that skill.  I guess I will have to consult my favorite Dear Jane resource more regularly.  This block stays; after all, I am not making a replica quilt and Mohawk turned out nicely.

I made Mohawk out of long strips of a red batik that Larry pulled out of a scrap basket in Wisconsin last Christmas.  Yesterday's Kaleidoscope was from yardage.  Just look at this crazy batik.  I love it so much!  I had to really work at it to locate the best brown veins, but it was lots of fun.

I want to do a blue block from this fabric as well.  Just look at all those yummy blue sections.  It would showcase really nicely in a block having a strong central focus like C7.  The C row is right around the corner; progress is being made.  

Happy quilting,
Susan in Texas

Dear Jane F-2 Kaleidoscope

I was a little sorry to see that one of the most fun DJ blocks, F-2, Kaleidoscope, turned out to be one of the brown blocks.  I only added a brown trip around the world to add depth to the quilt to keep it from being too wild.  I selected the jolliest brown batik I have to keep it from being too, well, ... brown.

F-2 Kaleidoscope

It took me almost as long to fussy cut this colorful batik as it did to paper-piece the block, but I love how it turned out.  Putting the final two halves together was a different story; alignment took forever.  I had to take a single stitch by hand at the very center, and it still did not line up perfectly.  I find centers like this notoriously difficult to work with.  I did manage to spin the seams at the back to reduce the bulk, so the block stayed nice and soft.  

Dear Jane E-2, Merry May Complete

Merry May is the last of the vacation applique blocks, though I actually finished it at home last night while catching up on Game of Thrones.  I like the simplicity of this block, plus it is an excellent showcase for an interesting batik.  I only wanted touches of the dark tones to show to add interest to the block.  There is actually a large blob of dark red hidden below the upper melon; you can see it barely peeking out on one side.

I have made this block before.  I am not sure what I was thinking in 2008 with my wild and crazy color choices.  I think using the white muslin against the batiks is a much more livable solution.

Dear Jane C-2, Streak of Lightning Completed

I think this might be my favorite block; it was certainly fun to work on.  I did have to alternate applique thread colors, but it was very easy to fill in the white spaces after all the purple was done.

We got back to Texas to a night of stormy weather, especially to the south of us here in Fort Worth.  Vacation in Scottsdale was awesome - lots of quilt stores and hiking and perfect weather.  I will have some pictures later this week.

Dear Jane E-2 Merry May - More Progress

I just loved working on this block.  It was so interesting to see how the patterns would come out.  This batik has large blobs of the dark red tones, but I fussy cut around 90% of them.  I think the little bit I left in adds spice to the block.

Dear Jane E-2

There is a bit of the red near the center of the lower applique piece; I hope some of it peeks through when the second melon is sewn on top.  Speaking of which, is it slack of me that I am planning that my applique stitches will be substantially further apart where they are not going to show?  I think that is just good judgement, don't you?  lol

Happy quilting!
Susan in Texas

Dear Jane D-2, Mouse in the Mirror

Inset seams are finally starting to get easier.  I just pinned and sewed more, and fussed and fretted less, and soon "Mouse" was complete.  I thought it would be more difficult than Tinker Toy, but it was actually easier.  Paper-piecing certainly makes it much more straight-forward.  I am now much less worried about completing the harlequin blocks of my Harlequin-Johnny.

D-2  Mouse in the Mirror

I really like how the fussy cutting on this block turned out.  I think the little spirals add lots of visual interest.  One of the things I love about batiks is that you can often change the whole look of the fabric with judicious planning and careful cutting.  I will be reusing many fabrics in my Dear Jane, so I am planning to take advantage of the fluid nature of my batiks.

Dear Jane D-2 Progress - Wordless Wednesday

D-2  Mouse in a Mirror

Dear Jane C-2 Streak of Lightning

I got the applique for C-2, Streak of Lightning, basted just this morning.  This block makes three prepared "vacation" appliques.  I think I will continue with D-2, Mouse in a Mirror, which is paper-piecing combined with inset seams, and E-2, Merry May, which is applique on a simple  paper-pieced ground.  (Note to self: you are NOT afraid of inset seams, you're not, you're not, you're not!)

After E-2 I will definitely start working on clue 4 of Grand Illusion. 
  
By the way, Larry has started working on the second Singer 127 restoration.   This one is going to be pearl white, and the paint job already looks AWESOME!  I have to start working on creating some stencils; we going the airbrush route instead of decals this time.