Dear Jane D12, J2 & J12

I sewed three more Dear Jane blocks bringing the total number of blocks made to 113 and triangles still at 5.

D12  I paper pieced this block.

D12  closeup

J2  I paper pieced this block

J2 closeup

J12  I paper pieced the basket and appliqued the handle.

J12 closeup

Everything so far.

I only have eight more blocks to make and then I will only have one more complete round of blocks to make to finish the centre of the quilt.  That means all of rows A and K, and blocks 1 & 13 from rows B to J.  Progress is being made!  The next four blocks and two triangles will be yellow.

Dear Jane D2 and E2

The last Thursday of the month is when the Dear Jane Bee I belong to gets together to sew.  Since that's not possible due to current social distancing, we sewed together separately, sending a few e-mails and pictures back and forth, and then got together on Zoom for half an hour at the end to chat and see each other.  I was able to sew two blocks.

E-2  I made this block using the cathedral window method, so it is a little different than the original.

And here's the closeup.

D-2  I paper-pieced this block and I think it turned out pretty good.

And the close-up.  Those little triangles are tiny!

Still having fun!

Bird of Paradise, aka Chickens

I am a fan of Jenny at Missouri Star Quilting and watch her new video every Friday.  I almost always want to make what she is showing, but it's just not possible to make them all.  This last week though I had to make something because in an abstract way it looked like chickens.  I don't know why, but I like chickens.  Here is a link to Jenny's video:  triple-play-drunkards-path-tutorial  The block involves making two drunkards path blocks, four triangle leg blocks and uses 10 additional squares of fabric.  The biggest drunkard's path block I could make was 3.5" unfinished so my blocks are smaller than Jenny's.  Here's my first block with the pieces laid out and ready to sew together.

Here are two mirror image chickens.  I've placed two black buttons where their eyes might be if it helps you to see the chickens.  They have gold legs and beaks, red combs and wattles and green and blue/gray tail feathers.

Here are four sewn together.  You may have noticed my chicken themed fabric as well.....what can I say, I like chickens.

I have added a border of 2.5" squares and laid out the binding I am going to use when it's finished.  It is 28.5" square and will make a nice table topper as the center is plain so the design won't be obscured by a centerpiece.

I thought I would be doing more sewing with the stay at home conditions we are in, but have been surprisingly busy with other  activities as well.  I have also made two more Chic Kisses blocks, but didn't take a picture of them as they all look the same.

More Chic Kisses Sewing

I know it's a little repetitive, but that's what happens when you are making a quilt.  You need a certain number of blocks so you just keep making them over and over again until you're done.  Today I made four more which brings me to ten of the twenty required for the next step in the wedding quilt for my son and d-i-l to be.

I took this picture upstairs in more natural light so the colours are more true.  Maybe tomorrow I will concentrate on doing some more quilting on the quilt I currently have in the frame.

Wedding Quilt Progress and Leader-Ender Half-Square Triangles

I made the sixth of twenty quarter blocks required for the next step of my son and d-i-l's Chic Kisses quilt today.

I also had to cut more half-square triangle pairs to use as leader-enders.  I only have 48 more to sew together which means I've already sewn together 352 hst's.  Shortly I will have all the hst's sewn together and will have to come up with a new idea of what to sew for leader-enders.  Maybe I can find something in one of my UFO's.

Wedding Quilt Progress

Last week I finally finished embroidering the quilt label for my daughter and s-i-l's Double Wedding Ring quilt.  The smallest text was embroidered with only one thread and I found it harder to embroider small text than large.

I have now appliqued it to the back of their quilt.

I have also made a hanging sleeve in two sections and I am hand sewing it to the back of the quilt.

I have also made five more quarter blocks towards my son and d-i-l to be's Chic Kisses quilt.  I had been calling this quilt a Pickle Dish quilt, but since the arcs are made with wedges and not triangles, I should probably be calling it a Gypsy Kisses quilt.

We are actively engaging in social distancing by staying home so there should be lots more sewing progress made in the next couple of weeks as we do our bit to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

Lost and Found, Six Years Later!

Six years ago, I left the department where I was employed for thirty-two years to spend my last three working years elsewhere.  I had a sewing project in my desk which I brought home when I went to the new work site.  I had been looking for it off and on over the years and especially as I was cleaning up my sewing area and itemizing all my works in progress the last couple of months.  I could not find it anywhere and was about to give it up for lost.  My husband is insulating our basement walls and because of that he is having to move a lot of things around.  Last night he came across a bag of coloured plastic bags in the laundry room which I had been collecting and using when I was making fused plastic bags.  Here's a picture of one of the bags I made.

He threw the bags into the recycling for pickup tomorrow.  Luckily he noticed there might be something else in there that wasn't just a plastic bag.  He pulled out a quilting magazine, a partial ball of crochet cotton with a crocheted snowflake in progress and the sewing project I had been looking for.  Yeah!  I am so glad this project did not end up at the curb tonight hidden in the recycling bag!

The project is a wall hanging called Free Range by www.beecreativestudio.com.  (The website appears to no longer exist.)  I have the background totally made and had started glue basting the applique chicken pieces to freezer paper.

I'll add this to my work in progress list.  Does it count as a UFO if you weren't able to find it in order to work on it?

Have I mentioned before that I like chickens?  Maybe you noticed the cushion cover on the trunk has chickens on it too.....

3D Pinwheel Cushion

I made this cushion cover after watching this Missouri Star Quilt Co. tutorial.  I wanted eight colours, so I picked the seven colours of the rainbow plus pink and chose a neutral grey background fabric.

I pressed all the coloured pieces into pinwheel shapes.

And then placed the pinwheel shapes on four grey fabric squares.

I sewed them into pairs and then into four patches.

And then added a grey rectangle to one side of all the pinwheel four patches.

I arranged the pinwheels in the order I wanted them.  The NSEW pinwheels were arranged so the pinwheel was closest to the outer edge.  The corner pinwheels were arranged so they were closest to the centre and another grey rectangle was added to fill out the corner square.

The final sewing step was to join these nine pieces together into one piece.

The next step is to layer the cushion top and quilt it.  It is 20 3/4" square.  Once it's quilted, I'll make an envelope back and bind the edge.  I don't have enough of the grey fabric left for the back, but I could use what's left for the binding.  I really like how the pinwheels are such a bright contrast to the grey background and they pop, not just in brightness, but 3D as well.

Dear Jane, 108 Blocks Plus 5 Triangles (continued)

Here are the two Dear Jane triangles I didn't have pictures of for yesterday's post as well as a picture of all my blocks so far.

TR5  I paper pieced this triangle.

TR9  And I paper pieced this triangle too.

And everything so far!

I'm still loving it and having fun as I make each new block, well maybe not quite as much fun when they are applique.....  Sixty-one blocks left to make of one-hundred and sixty-nine and fifty-one triangles to make of fifty-six.