Dear Jane - Machine Stitching the binding!

 Yesterday was a huge milestone in my Jane journey - the binding is attached to the quilt my machine!  It was a bit of a chore with all those scallops, but I got it done!

I borrowed a tip from my friend, Erika, and wound my finished binding around a can (I believe she uses a can of peas, but I used tomatoes - haha)

Once you do this you can sit your can with the binding strips right where you need it.  Just unroll a couple feet at a time and you are set!  No tangles or getting the binding caught on anything.  This is a really terrific idea!

It was super scary to trim those edges off!  The fluffy wool batting made it a little tricky, too.  

I cut a slit right up to the point between scallops to help in getting the binding around them.  I think there are 16 scallops on each side, then those little petal corners.  It took me a while to get all the way around!

So pretty!  I debated whether to do white or blue binding.  The blue one because white binding always gets dirty.  That's my reasoning anyway!  I handstitched for a couple hours last night and finished one side, but did  get two corners done.  It's going to take a while, so I'm glad I have a few days to get to the finish!

Quilting Dear Jane, Column 12 - Almost Finished!

Today was definitely a lazy day - we slept in and I just pretty much just lazed around for most of the morning.  It felt pretty nice to tell you the truth!

The sun came out for a bit and I got busy and quilted Column 12 - just the final column to go tomorrow!  I've been resisting the urge to go lay it on my bed to see what it's going to look like because I want to wait until the binding is finished.  

Instead, I lay it out on the cutting table and admire it!

The sunshine coming in the window felt wonderful.  I really enjoy the light and warmth.

 After this I spent some time working on the jigsaw puzzle we started yesterday.  It's a tough one, but fun because it's a quilt!  I spent most of today separating the pieces into the different fabrics, and started working on the patches at the bottom of the quilt.  It's a good thing we don't eat on my dining table!

Hope your weekend is relaxing, too!

Dear Jane - Quilting column 1

 Since I accidentally quilted colum 2 on Monday, I decided to go all the way and quilt column 1 on Tuesday.  Just three more columns left to quilt!  

Since I have also been quiting four pieced triangles and four solid trianges each day as well, I now have three of the borders and corners completed as well!

I've also been working on quilting the scallops, so the whole quilt will be finished when I get the last column done.

I'm thinking I'll have to take a break for a couple days to finish up some Christmas stuff.  I haven't really been feeling the Christmas spirit so much this year.  I guess not a lot of us are.  It's been really nice to have this quilt to focus on, it's been very much a bright spot in this time.  But I think I'll survive taking a couple of days off to do some other stuff.

I am looking forward to a couple of small family events.  Still missing the big get together with everyone, but it will do.  Going to make candy cane cookies today with a special helper!  Should be fun!

Dear Jane Quilting Column 2

 I meant to quilt column 11 on monday, but got the quilt upside down and ended up quilting column 2.  That's ok, because I was able to take pictures of column 3 which I finished on Sunday and didn't get pictures of!

I'm excited to see the progress!

I might have to take a couple days off this week, because it is Christmas after all!

I just love all the different shades of blue in this quilt.  

I'm enjoying seeing how the quilting really accentuates all the piecing and makes it come to life!

That one triangle always makes me think of fish bones...

Draped over the cutting table, just for the effect!  I don't think I'll ever get tired of this quilt!  I got my binding cut and pressed today...another exciting step!  I'm trying something new with it this time, I'll show you when I get there.  

Are you stitching today, or getting ready for Christmas?  I'm doing a little of both!

Column 7 Quilting

 My goal for this afternoon was to quilt one column and four triangles - and it happened, isn't that great?!

These are all just stitched in the ditch with free motion.  I really like how that makes the applique pop up!

For the next three there was some fancy stitching which was fun to do in a small scale, and curvy outlining with some melons added to the center of the star.  With all the applique melons, of couse I'll be adding plenty of quilted ones as well!

More curved outlining, stitch in the ditch and then curvy outlining with some straight lines in the bottom one.  I think I need to come back and outline those tiny triangle appliques.

This one I am not sure if I am super happy with.  The piecing was perfectly straight, but it looks wonky after quilting.  This was the second one I did and I don't think I was as careful about keeping the block straight as I stitched it.  I might take it out and restitch it later.

More melons, outlining and echoing, and I think that top one needs a little more.  We'll see as I go.

Outlining on the triangle.  Not sure if I'll stick with that or add more later.  

And the final two triangles I did with outlining.  I also tried some straight line stitching in the triangles.  I like them!  I might add more lines, later.  I'm happy just experimenting my way through the quilt and making decisions as I go.  The quilting is super fun, the blocks are so small it doesn't take long to do each one, which makes me very happy!  It's so exciting to be at this stage of this project that I'm absolutely falling in love with it all over again - and that is the joy of working on a project that you can pour your heart and soul into.  It's bittersweet knowing it will be done sone, but fear not, I'm already planning my next big finish - I've got plenty calling my name!  

Sidetracked in a most colorful way!

 More progress has been made on my Crazy Jane (Dear Jane) quilt this week!  I completed row L!

Those little corner triangles on the lower block?  They are a 1/2 inch square cut in half.  Those were interesting to sew on - more is in the seam allowance than on the top of the triangle!

Just one more row to go!  Plus 2 1/4 borders.  I am really closing in on getting this finished.  

I meant to work on tidying up my sewing room this weekend, but what did I find on the first shelf as I started?  Celtic Solstice - the first Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt that I attempted to make!  I completed the first step and was half way through with the second.  Everything was cut for that step, so I just needed to do the sewing...so I did!

Glorious color!  Then I decided to check out the next step.  And so down the rabbit hole I went.  I cut out a ton of half square triangles!

And then I sewed all of them together - the sewing took way less time than the cutting!  By then it was dinner time, but I couldn't help myself...what's the next step?

Needless to say I now have a bin of strips ready to sew for step four now.  Pretty sure that step five is also in my future today.  It's so much fun to play in these bright scraps after mostly working with blue and white for the past month.  But I did promise myself that I will be making at least one triangle for Crazy Jane today!  

The good news is that I now know why my yellow and orange bins are looking so empty - I pulled a lot of the them for this quilt, as well as Bonnie's Good Fortune mystery.  Maybe I'll do a bit of clean up and sorting fabric today as well - but it sure is tempting just to spend the day speed sewing through these two projects.  Maybe I'll make it a goal to clear the cutting table and just be happy with that!  Hope you have a lovely day and get to do some sewing, too!

Oh Scrap

UFO Busting

Birthday Week is over...back to reality!

 Well, Birthday week was fun!  I'm so happy that DD#4 was able to come for a visit with her family, we had a great time!  It did slow me down a bit on the sewing front, so I only got a few blocks done this week.

Working my way down the right side triangles.  This one was pieced using templates made from freezer paper ironed on to the back of my fabric.  There is a triangle on the bottom that has a slit in it that I should replace, though - I don't want to chance a hole in the finished quilt!

Make sure you click the "read more" link below to read the rest of my post!

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

It's my Birthday Week!

 I did have bigger plans for my birthday this year - but with the Corona virus around and all that stuff, there's no big celebration in store, just small ones.  I have, however, proclaimed this to officially be my birthday week and am enjoying it!

I decided to work on some of the side triangles for my Crazy Jane quilt and since I am doing them in a relaxed and thoughtful manner am fully enjoying them!

This one I did by using paper foundation piecing.  I was a little unhappy that the top was a bit wonky, then I looked at the picture, and Jan'e is wonky, too!  So I decided that made it just fine!  I thought about how she came up with ideas for all these different blocks, and wondered if her friends teased her about this elaborate undertaking.  Did they give her their fabric scraps so she could use them?  

This one I pieced with strips.  These strips are all 1 3/16 of an inch.  The angle is a strange one, but I devised a method for helping me cut them - I bought some fine point wet erase markers earlier this year for another purpose, but they are amazing for using to mark lines on my cutting rulers.  The lines don't rub off unless you use a wet cloth!  So I just lined my ruler up to the drawing, marked the line of the angle and easily cut my strips.  Now I started thinking about how in the world did Jane do this?  Without access to all the great tools and help that we have today, she made these very precise blocks.  Plus, how did she come up with all these designs?  Did she just stitch and make it up as she went, did she draw them out beforehand?  I'l really love to know her design process!

I'll leave you with those deep thoughts and go off to my sewing room to do some more fun stitching.  I'm just allowing myself to play this week and enjoy whatever comes to my mnd to work on.  Still trying to make a block a day for this project in hopes of having my to finished in October, but other than that anything is fair gane!  After all, it's my Birthday Week!

Happy Leap Day!

It's been a busy weekend!  I managed to finish one lap quilt, got a good start on the final baby clothes quilt (miscalculated the fabric I needed so will have to go buy some more to work on that) basted two other quilts and did finish one Dear Jane block!  That one block took me over two hours to complete as it was all applique, so I am pleased that it is finished at last.  

This is block F-9 Autumn Aster.  I appliqued the blue melons to the background fabric, then appliqued those sections to the blue back ground square and trimmed the background away when done.  Happy to have this one behind me now!

Here is my Honeybee block.  One  down, 11 to go on this one!

And this is the state of my sewing table this morning:

So I suppose you can see what needs to be first on my list today!

Don't forget the Planes, Trains and Automobiles Blog Hop is still going on for this week!  We have two wonderful projects for you today - make sure you stop by the blogs and enter for prizes.

Monday, February 29 – Jersey Shore 
Bea Lee 
Lemon Tree Snippets

Have a happy leap day!

Where Did the Weekend Go?

I can't believe it's Monday again already!  I'm not sure where the weekend went, but I did get a lot of sewing done because we stayed put.  Poor DH had a bit of a cold, so we just took it easy.  I got my quilt ready for this week's blog hop post, but you can't see it yet - you'll have to check back in on Friday to see it.  I also finished a top for a customer quilt, plus got the back ready.  I would have quilted it, but ran out of batting.  Luckily FedEx brought my new roll today, so I can get quilting on the tops I have that are ready to be made into quilts.  I have at least four lap quilts that are in need of quilting.

Yesterday I spent working on Dear Jane blocks.  I got 5 done and one is halfway there!

Notice I have two pictures of one block.  I realized that I had not added the center square after I had it finished.  I was sneaky and managed to add the center by taking out a few stitches and piecing it in.  I've been a slacker this month, so need to do some catching up.  I think I might owe a few from January as well, so I need to get on the ball and get a lot of blocks done this week!

The Planes, Trains and Automobiles blog hop continues this week - here are today's posts:

Mary Mack Made Mine
Purrfect Spots Designs

Hasn't it been fun seeing all the new lines?  Make sure you stop at each blog - there are great giveaways at each one!  

Back to my Crazy Jane Quilt

My friend Lee and I are challenging ourselves to finish our Dear Jane quilts this year.  In order to accomplish this we have decided to make four blocks a week.  I have a count of 99 center blocks done at this point - only 70 to go!  I also have the top row of triangles completed, so just three sides and three corners left as well - so that makes another 42, so that makes 113 done, and 112 to go.  In other words, I just passed the halfway point!  28 weeks, if I stay on this schedule, which would put me done right around August.  I started the whole journey of making this quilt in August, so I think that is a super awesome goal for this year!

Here are the four blocks I made today:

They are G-1, G-2, !-7 and I-8

I made G- 1 by appliqueing the center circles onto the side triangles.  Then I machine pieced the triangles together.  I thought about hand piecing the circles, but decided applique was easier.

G-2 was totally traditional piecing.  16 half square triangles sewn together in the proper sequence.  Not too hard to accomplish!

I-7 was also traditionally pieced, then those tiny triangles were appliqued by hand.  One looks a little odd, but I think I'm leaving it!  I think there was only room for about 4 stitches on each side of those.  Kind of a pin, but they do add a bit of interest to the block I suppose.

I-8 owes it crisp appearance to paper piecing.  And the lovely Island Batik fabric that I used in it!  I promise it will be joined by more - I've accumulated a nice amount of blues from my ambassador projects.  Batiks are so nice for paper piecing, they press so nicely.

Here is my progress!  Maybe next week I will figure out how to add the triangles and corner sections.  I'm pretty excited to see my chart start filling up!