Dear Jane B-12 Starflower Complete

This one will not win any prizes for perfect placement, but I think it turned out very pretty and will make a very happy splash on my Dear Jane.  In any event, I am glad to have it finally done.  It reminds me of the sewing labels my sister bought me for Christmas which say "This took forever!"

B-12 Starflower

I believe this completes the last little remaining bit of Row B.  I believe I am closing in on 40 completed blocks; that is almost a quarter of the blocks completed.  Wow!

Not Nearly Wordless Wednesday - Dear Jane B-12 Starflower Progress

One melon down, three to go.  That center "square" really gave me problems; the wonky corner has already been redone once.  For some reason, I was careful with the direction of the overflowing fabric for the melons, but not with the center; it really makes a difference.  Another lesson learned:  All excess fabric must flow to the left.

B-12 Starflower

Still loving this batik though; it was a treat to work on it again

Happy quilting!
Susan

Dear Jane - Finishing B-11, Melissa's Cross

I finally finished B-11, Melissa's Cross.  How I love appliqueing circles; no pesky points to irritate me.  I did have to swap out purple and white thread for the applique every time the fabric changed.  I did all the purple, carrying the purple thread behind the white bars, then went back for the four separate white sections.

I think B-11 is one of my favorite blocks.  I love the fabric.  I wish I had more scraps of that batik, but I used up the whole piece on this block.

I am back to using freezer paper for my applique.  I always wonder if I am doing my applique the "right" way.  I have read several sets of instructions on the subject, and their stitches always look so perfect.  My stitches never look perfect.  I usually have to be happy if my stitches do not show and the fabric ends up tightly attached to the ground.  If my curves are smooth, well, that is just a bonus.  lol 

Does anyone besides me wonder if their work is "good" enough?  I might want to show my Dear Jane when it is done, perhaps I will find out then that I am doing "toe-catching" applique.  I knew when I entered "Ethan" in my first show that the quilting was bad because I had problems with bobbin tension, but I never knew the stitches on the binding were supposed to be SO close together.  Live and learn. 

Happy quilting!
Susan in Texas

Dear Jane B13 - Four Corner Press

I asked for fabric for Christmas and my niece, Kate, knocked it out of the park.  She gave me a gorgeous selection of fabrics, including the batik centerpiece on this Dear Jane B-13, Four Corner Press.  It is very different from all my other batiks - almost an indigo.  

B-13 differs from all other DJ blocks in that it replaces muslin with another fabric.  I wanted to keep the muslin stand-in very light, with high contrast to the focal fabric. When I saw these two fabrics together I knew I had my Four Corner Press.

Dear Jane B-13 - Four Corner Press

I could not resist fussy cutting the batik to showcase a single flower, but I let the four corners fall where they may.  The light blue is a hand-dyed from Joy's Fabric.  Her hand-dyed pastels have a wonderful texture - very soft and rich.  We run into Joy at virtually every quilt show we attend, and I never make it past her booth without making a purchase; her selection of fabric is top notch.

Is it not great every once in awhile to come across a super-simple Dear Jane block?  I think Four Corner Press certainly fits that description.

Well, who woulda thunk it?  Row B is complete.  Saaaalute!

Happy stitching,
Susan in Texas

Finally Back to Dear Jane - Prepping B-11 Melissa's Cross and B-12 Starflower

I want to have some handwork to take on an upcoming vacation, so prepping the applique is as far as these two blocks will go for now. I paper-pieced the center section of Melissa's Cross, then attached the purple half moons.  It was freezer paper time after that.  

With guidelines drawn on the freezer paper circle to insure proper alignment, I pressed and basted the seam allowance.  The whole thing then got basted to an over-sized piece of muslin.  It will get cut to size after the applique is done.  My handwork has a tendency to draw up the ground fabric quite a bit so I like to leave some extra.

I almost did not have enough fabric to complete this block.  I used a scrap from my recent bargain bin bash in Green Bay, and it was just enough, with barely a crumb left over.  I love this batik!

I was careful this time to make all the melon tips point left on Starflower, so I can applique to the point before having to sweep under the excess fabric.  I was also super careful with placement to avoid having one wonky melon again.  We will just have to see if all my concerned fiddling makes any difference in the final outcome; it is really hard to tell with all the excess at the points in the way right now.

We went to the Botanic Garden yesterday where the wisteria are in full bloom.  The rain held off while we were there.  It was a bit early for the roses, but everything else was really starting to pop.

Dear Jane B-10 Jud's Trophy

After Water Lily and Tinker Toy it was nice to get back to simple paper-piecing.  I did lots of fussy cutting on this one to showcase the rich yellow instead of the batik design.  I may have overdone it on the fussy cutting, because to me, it looks like there is a dirty smudge in the the center section, but it is really the design of the batik.

B-10  Jud's Trophy

I keep telling myself I am going to get these small simple shapes perfectly paper-pieced, but, as usual, one of the teeny bits is a little wonky.  I think it happens because my ironing gets crooked past the seam (since I do not sew in the seam allowance) and it draws the section slightly out of true.  I will have to watch that.  Overall, though, I am very pleased with this block.  I am finally starting to get my squares fairly square, and I think I may have started to figure out how to sew next to the line at the points so they do not get lost in the seam.

Two things stand out about Jud's Trophy.  1.) Because the block is mostly constructed around a single center section, I used LOTS of leaders and enders.  I had a pile of half square triangles to iron after Jud was complete.  2.) Removing the paper was a special challenge on this one, especially from the center section.  I had to use a Tweezerman to get all the bits out, and I had to hold the block up to the light to verify I had actually gotten all the paper.

I think I have worn out my trusty Clover craft iron.  Sometimes it does not heat up, and other times it is like molten lava, and I have to be very careful not to scorch the fabric.  I use the Clover all the time for all my Dear Jane blocks; it is indispensable.

Dear Jane B-8 Water Lily - More Progress

This was a fun block to do, and I am really loving my brown batiks.  They look so mysterious.  I paper-pieced the center, then machine sewed two of the inset seams, then hand-sewed the final two.  I honestly do not remember why I did it that way, it must have been easier (and this was only last week - sigh.)  I then appliqued the four little melons.

I did my usual prepared applique, though this time I started with freezer paper to complete the ironing process.  I basted down the edges of the melons, then basted the melons in place.  I really worked to fussy cut all the pieces; I tried to keep the batik design flowing. 

I went to the trouble of creating a template for applique placement, instead of just eyeballing it.  I could not cut out too much paper or the template would have fallen apart.

It all fit together very nicely, and I thought I had placed the melons very carefully with the template before I basted them to the muslin.  I should have checked the placement before I started sewing though.  I also should have started sewing each melon at a point near the center star.  Sadly, I did not follow my own advice (or maybe it is only advice in hindsight; I am not sure), because one of my melons is way off kilter.  How the heck did that happen anyway?  They sure all look fine here.

Once again, it is finished, and finished is better than perfect.  If I still think it needs "fixing" when I have completed all the blocks, I will fix it then.  Somehow, I do not believe that will ever happen in a million years!

Happy quilting.

Dear Jane B-9 Tinker Toy - Conquering Inset Seams

Completing Tinker Toy gave me confidence that I could conquer inset seams.  I had actually considered applique for this block because I found inset seams so intimidating.  I watched videos on inset seams, by hand with Jinny Beyer, and by machine with Edyta Sitar, then finally set out to complete this block by machine.  

I paper-pieced the half square triangles, then completed the block in three strips.  I drilled through the paper to place dots on the wrong sides of the fabric where the seams need to start and stop, then I removed the paper because it just got in the way.  I pinned at two dots, then sewed the strips together, starting with the central square seam.  I repeated the process for each of the five separate inset seams, moving out from the center, stopping and starting for each seam.  It seemed to take forever, but the process went very smoothly, and I am very pleased with the results.

I have always had a problem with using the paper for units that only have one piece because there is nothing holding the paper to the fabric.  I do not like to use pins because they always deform the paper a bit.  I came up with the idea to machine baste the paper to the fabric in the seam allowance.  It worked great, and made trimming the units a breeze.  I am going to use this method from now on.  I always add an extra quarter inch seam allowance to the outside edges of the block in case of shrinkage, so that is where I basted.

You can see the basting stitches in the four sections of the completed block.  For Tinker Toy, these basting stitches just got trimmed away.

When I considered how to iron this block, it seemed to lay much flatter when I kept the muslin perfectly flat.  To do this, I had to press open the short inset seams between the muslin.  This was tricky, but aside from being a little shaggy, I think the back looks pretty good.  In any event, I am no longer intimidated (too much) by inset seams.

Happy quilting!

Dear Jane B-7 World Series - progress photo

This is my favorite Dear Jane block so far.  I just love the red batik and I was very pleased with my diamonds and melons.  (I can see that I still need to rub on the muslin to get rid of the pinholes.)  I used typical prepared applique for the diamonds.  This time I drew the pattern on the back of the diamonds so I could check to see if I had ironed the crease in exactly the right spot.  I think that helped with accuracy.  

For the melons I sewed two pieces of muslin together on the pattern line, slashed one melon, then turned them inside out, smoothed them, then sewed them down.  I'll have to remember that this procedure makes the melons a bit large and shrink the pattern piece accordingly.

I get the best placement results by far when I baste down the pattern with the applique pieces cut out.  It's hard to go wrong with applique placement when you do this.  I then baste the folds down on the muslin so they don't get distorted (diamonds only), and then baste the diamonds and the melons to the batik with the paper in place.  All I have to do then is take off the paper and sew the muslin to the batik.  It's a little extra trouble to do all that basting, but it makes all the rest of the work so much easier.

This is definitely my favorite red batik, though I have several that I really like.  Some of them are really wild; they run the gamut from hot pink to red orange.  This will not be a dull Dear Jane.

Dear Jane B-6 Wild Goose Chase

Only one more Dear Jane block after this and I'll be all caught up with blogging about them.  I'll have to get busy and make some more.  Wild Goose Chase was a strange little block.  There were so many nearly identical triangle units, that I had to pay close attention to how they all went together.  I didn't have my little Clover iron in Green Bay, and I think this block suffered a little bit because of it.  The block is still definitely a keeper, though! 

B-6 Wild Goose Chase

I have so many batiks with dots.  I've never been a big polka-dot fan, but I really love random dots.  Just look at my brown batik collection.  I see at least five different fabrics with dots.  I don't go looking for them, they just seem to find me and convince me to bring them home!

Tonight I finished cutting out the rest of the gold fabric I'll be paper-piecing with on my Harlequin-Johnny.  I hope I don't have to use a scissors for a few days; my hand has gotten sore from all that cutting.

I am so thankful to have made it to work safely this morning.  The roads were MUCH worse than I expected.  Fortunately all the ice melted during the day so my evening commute was uneventful.  We're supposed to get more bad weather, snow this time.  Not good.  Maybe it won't snow; I hope so!

Happy quilting,
Susan in Texas

Dear Jane B-5 Hot Cross Buns

I made Hot Cross Buns out of the batiks Larry had just pulled for me out of the Quilt Store bin in Green Bay.  I love batiks at $4.00 per pound! lol  I liked these diamonds lots better than my Jonquil diamonds, except for the gangly looking one in the lower right hand corner.  I don't know what happened to that one,

B-5 Hot Cross Buns

I love my green batiks, especially the alligator one.  I'm planning to use that one in a block very soon.  You can see how many greens I have, the hanger has really started to deform under the weight of all those batiks.

I sewed a lot during the sleet storm.  I wish I could take off another day, the roads are still pretty bad, but it is supposed to warm up past freezing today, so I need to get into work.  I don't think it is any big secret that I would rather stay home and sew, especially since there is still ice on the roads.

Dear Jane B-4 Chris' Soccer Field

I got so carried away with Dear Jane while in Green Bay that I paper-pieced this block on my Mom's sewing machine.  The smallest stitch the machine would make were huge.  And my Mom buys nice, sturdy copy paper too.  I had quite a time getting the paper off this block without deforming the stitches.  I do love this batik, though, it has lots of interest.  Paper piecing doesn't get much easier than this.

B-4 Chris' Soccer Field

I have a good selection of yellow batiks now.  At least they're not all blindingly bright anymore.  You can see the one I used on this block peeking out from beneath the wide bright yellow about half way down.

We're having thundersleet this morning and it looks like a skating rink on our cul-de-sac, so I'll be taking an unscheduled vacation day today.  I'm working on Harlequin-Johnny again.  All the Johnny blocks are done, now it is time for the more challenging Harlequins.  I'm paper-piecing the 100 corners.  To avoid wastage I marked most of the 300 pieces in Shreveport using two templates, 

then visited with Grandma and cut them apart.  (We interrupted her nap.)

I have lots of pleasant sewing to do today, and Grandma can catch up on her sleep.  She is such a sweetie-pie.  She is starting to take lots more naps now.  She will be 104 in November and needs to pace herself.

Happy quilting!

Dear Jane B-3 Mirror Image

I wonder if Jane put Mirror Image next to Sweet Potato Pie for a reason? They are so much alike that it seems strange she would put them adjacent by accident.  Speaking of accidents, neither B2 nor B3 came out particularly round.  Especially considering I pulled them taut around a circle template, basted them into a circle, basted them to the ground, then sewed them down. You would think I would have tamed them into nice sweet circles after all that, but no. They're not awful, just sort of... lumpy.  Oh well, better luck next time.

B-3 Mirror Image

I concentrated on collecting purples the last few trips.  Some of these batiks are not very purple at all, but they're more purple than they are anything else so they landed on the purple hanger.  I'll have to do lots of fussy cutting to keep some of these so called "purples" in the near vicinity of the actual color purple.  I'm going to try, but I probably won't be able to use all of them. Having them all together like this is a very useful design tool; I can see whether or not they'll play nicely together.  Some of them seem very pink, orange or red amongst their fellow violets and grapes.

I really love batiks.  It seems like I have tons of them, but I'll have to make about 25 squares/triangles out of each color way.  I'll have to re-use the same fabrics for many of the blocks.  I'm just planning to keep the ones made out of the same fabric well away from each other. I'm sure there will be plenty of variety!

In the meantime, all good wishes to my blogging buddies in the paths of tropical cyclones Marcia in Queensland (especially Kris in Toowoomba) and Lam in NT.

Happy quilting!

Dear Jane B-2 Sweet Tater Pie

I just realized the last block made me go "Silver" on the Dear Jane list.  Twenty-five blocks completed. Whew!  I get really caught up in them, and don't want to do anything else for a few weeks, then I put them down for awhile.  I went back to a hand-dyed fabric I've had almost forever for the start of Row 2 to get a nice, soft orange amidst all those brights.

B-2 Sweet Tater Pie

I kept telling myself, "Oh, you're short on oranges." or "Oh, you're short on browns."  So every time we went on vacation, I would concentrate on expanding my selection in one or two colors.  We got back from a very successful trip to Green Bay at Christmas, and when I went to select fabrics for my next block, the batiks just came out of the woodwork.  It made it so hard to choose!  I needed a system.  

I decided to cut an old bed sheet into seven sections and pin them to hangers.  I divided my batiks into the seven different "trip" colors and pinned them to the correct sheet, overlapping, but with each fabric at least partially visible.

I think I have enough oranges now...