Dear Jane B3

Above is my latest Dear Jane block that I finished this weekend.  I'm kicking myself because I didn't plan ahead and press my seams so that they were opposing when I put it together.  The intersections are a little bulky, but they meet just fine.  I was so far into the block that I decided not to re-make it.  Maybe if there were 30 hours in the day...

Dear Jane G4

Things have been crazy busy at work recently, and I really haven't done any sewing outside of the Monday night classes.  Above is Dear Jane block G4, which was complete except for trimming, which I did today.  Now I have my workspace cleared off and ready for some sewing today, but I just can't decide what to work on.  I'll be co-teaching a three day workshop in June where I had planned to teach a project that I already taught recently.  But inspiration struck and now there are two new projects vying to be taught instead.  Of course I would have to complete one from start to finish in about a week, which seems impossible, but for some reason I want to give it a shot.  Now I'm trying to decide which one to actually make.  This probably sounds about as confusing as it is in my head.  Perhaps I'll just read my book for while instead and let it stew!

Stash Busting 2011 - Week 20

I haven't posted about Stashbusting lately because there's been nothing-in and nothing-out.  But I must confess some purchases! The three fat quarters above were purchased at a Sew Many Quilts, a quilt shop in the town where my sister lives.  I also got a few pieces for my Dear Jane quilt, but I haven't been adding those to the official stash because they are dedicated to that project.  The three above just spoke to me for some reason - especially the orange one on the right.  My bigger purchase is actually going to help me bust my stash (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!).  I bought two bolts of fabric from The Fat Quarter Shop recently.  I bought a bolt of solid white and a bolt of solid black.  They have really good deals on their Moda and Robert Kaufmann solids, and I was able to combine that with a coupon and was very pleased with what I ended up paying.  The way I figure it, now that I have these fabrics on hand, I won't have to go out and buy background fabrics whenever I want to make a quilt.  I have plenty of stash, but it is mostly smaller pieces - not much yardage.  Let's see how long I can go now without buying anything (except for the DJ quilt).  It's a personal challenge!!

Fabric in this week:  30.75 yards
Fabric out this week:  0.00 yards

Fabric in this year:  34.75 yards
Fabric out this year:  4.75 yards

Dear Jane K8

I like this block a lot! I had it almost complete back on Monday, and it took me until today to finish it up.  I'm really on a roll with these Dear Jane blocks lately.  I promise to post something else non-DJ related soon!  I did make some fabric purchases, so I'll have to confess report those tomorrow.  Also the Bloggers Quilt Festival is going on, and I'd really like to post something for that, too.  If all goes well, I should have some new posts up soon!

Dear Jane K9

This is probably the block that I'm least pleased with so far as far as workmanship goes.  It's a fairly simple block, but there are a couple of seams that don't match up that bother me.  In the scheme of things they are not a big deal and I'll probably never fix them, but becuase it's my most recent block so they are on my mind.  However, I have another block nearly finished and I'm sure I'll forget all about those pesky mis-matched seams soon!

Dear Jane E9

Another Dear Jane block done!  I got the majority of this block done on Monday night at class.  I only needed to add the borders to the sides, which I did today.  Twice.  Yes, I put the borders on with wider strips than I needed, so that I could trim the block down to the exact size.  However, I trimmed it completely wrong!  Two sides were narrow and two sides were wide.  Ugh. I had to pull all four borders off and then sew new ones back on so that I could trim it properly.  Maybe today was not a good day to sew!  It is all done (correctly) now so I can add this one to the list!

Dear Jane C11

C11 is the latest Dear Jane block that I made.  I wanted to do one with applique, and this one was simple enough.  I opted not to do what Jane Stickle did, which was to applique four small blocks, each with two quarter-cirlcles, and then sew those together to make the larger block.  Instead I cut one large shape of the light background fabric and then appliqued it onto the orange fabric.  This way I was able to place the center circle over a motif in the orange print.  I think it came out pretty nice and it really didn't take me long at all.  I was a little worried about the orange color shadowing through the light fabric, so I cut away the orange underneath before I added the borders.