More Crazy Jane progress!

 I've really turned the corner, especially in my attitude, on working on this quilt.  It's been a crative and fun challenge to figure out how to piece each block, and I find myself using techniques that are seldom pulled out of my toolbox!  Currently there is a craze for using the English Paper Piecing for making these blocks, and I can see why!

This block came out so flat and perfect!  My hands are a little achy this morning, though, since I worked at this all evening.  I do need to limit myself on the hand sewing if I don't want to feel the effects the next day.

This block had a ton of applique, and I worked on it over the course of several days.  It's a gorgeous one!  It had some piecing in the center of that applique circle, so I did that with freezer paper templates and pieced it by machine, then added the melons.  You can barely see them, but I know they are there!

And I finished another block for row K:

After I posted it on Instagran I realized I had made an error.  Nope, not taking it out, This is my quilt, not an exact copy, and I am going to embrace those differences instead of fretting about them!

I didn't want to neglect my August OMG, so I got the piano key border pieced and attached.  I knew this quilt was going to be pretty, but I am really delighted with how lovely it is!  

As you can see, I chose to put the lighter strips in the border and use the darker strips to frame the larger blocks in the center.  It really came out great!  In order to keep my birds right side up I had to take a little more care when adding the pieced strips to them.  I simply divided the squares and strip sets into four sets and stitched each set one at a time making sure I had everything set up so those birds would be right side up!  It worked out perfectly and even ensured that the colors were really nicely distributed.  I finished up by getting the back sewn together so all I have to do is baste and quilt it.  Two weeks to go, so I am in good shape with this project.

Time to get my yard clothes on and get outside and water before it gets too warm!  It's going to be one of those warm sunny days here and I want to take full advantage of it!  It's been fun taking the week to mostly work on my own projects, and I am happy to have gained enthusiasm for the Dear Jane quilt again.  I'm busy pinning ideas for the quilting now - and I need to start thinking of what I am going to back it with.  I guess I'll have to do some shopping....

UFO Busting