Dear Jane Quilt, E7 - 12 of 225

I decided to make the "flower" in this block a little bigger so I didn't have to add as large a border to it.  I started with four 2 3/4" squares with snowballs on all four corners and cut some 3/4" strips as well.

Then I cut each snowballed square in half and sewed a strip in the centre and joined these in pairs.

I then cut these two rectangles in half and sewed another strip in their centres.

I then sewed these pairs together.  I should have made my squares slightly larger so no border at all would have been required.  I ended up adding a 5/8" strip which means my border was only 1/8" wide once the sashing was added, oh well, live and learn.  Here's E7 finished.

And here are my first 12 blocks sewn together.

46 separate pieces of fabric in this one little square!

Dear Jane Quilt H8, E6 & E8 - 11 of 225

Here is block H8 completed, with the centre circle "reverse" topstitched under the black square.  I am trying to make the Dear Jane Quilt totally by machine and have succeeded so far.

I got block E-6 pieced on Thursday with my Dear Jane group.  If I were to make it again (which I'm not) I would make the centre square a little larger so the smaller triangles were bigger and then the green rectangles would be narrower. 

And this morning I got block E-8 pieced while skype sewing with my friend Marilyn.

Still having fun, although I did start a border triangle and got myself turned around while doing freezer paper piecing where you don't sew through the paper.  I mistakenly cut my pieces with the freezer paper templates ironed to the front of the paper instead of the back so they were all mirror imaged by mistake.  Now that I know what I did wrong, it will be easy to fix and do it right.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it Up Friday

Dear Jane Quilt F8 & H8 - 9 of 225

Here is block F8.  I pieced it.  After I got the slanted outer border together I realized I slanted it the opposite way, but I am not going to change it.  I've read where others have slanted it the wrong way too because they forgot to mirror image their paper piecing.  I don't have that excuse, but I'm happy with it the way it is.

And here is block H8.  I pieced the parts shown.  A circle will have to be cut out of the centre of the block so that I can reverse applique the pieced circle under it.  I will be having an applique lesson on Thursday at my Dear Jane meeting so hope to have an updated picture to show after that.

And here are the first nine blocks sewn together with F8's centre pinned in place.

The next block I want to do is TR7, the first triangle in the top row.  I think I will be paper piecing it.

Updates on Several Things

I finished making my Rings test quilt top complete with all the little peek-a-boo cathedral window flowers and I have now purchased the background fabric so can start on the real thing!

Here is a detail picture of a side half flower

And a corner quarter flower

I also finished a UFO from Valentine's Day 2017.  I had started three Valentine's Day table runners and finished two for my children's families but had not finished the one for myself.  I just needed to quilt and bind it.  The last ones I quilted by marking them with a Hera marking tool which just leaves a bit of a crease in the fabric which is sometimes hard to see and follow.  This time I just used good old painters tape and I found it easier and faster.

Five of us were showing different techniques for finishing quilts at guild this past week:  mitered borders, precise tiny borders, binding, self binding baby blanket and glue basted binding.  I was doing glue basted binding so used this table runner as my demo.  Here is a closeup of how well the binding looks on the this table runner on the back (stitching very close to the edge of the binding) and on the front (stitching almost invisible in the ditch) which is nice since this table runner is double-sided.

I had been taking the pictures for my blog predominately with my iPad but this week it stopped charging so have to see if that can be fixed.  The pictures on this blog post have been taken with a camera my father gave me.  Thanks pa!  The close-ups are better, I think. 

Modern Double Wedding Rings (Metro Rings) Test Block(s)

So I asked my daughter and her finance if they would like me to make them a Double Wedding Rings Quilt and they both agreed they liked the pattern.  I proposed Metro Rings by Sew Kind of Wonderful because it is simplified with strip piecing but to me still retains the overall Double Wedding Rings look.  (Remember the word simplified as I continue.)

 I have also been making Dear Jane blocks and my daughter was quite taken with this block in particular where I used bias edges pulled back and sewn down a la Cathedral Windows inspiration to create orange peels rather than hand appliqued them on, to which I am currently allergic.

 She asked me if I might be able to incorporate something along this vein into the Rings Quilt.  I said I would see if I could.  I followed the Metro Rings instructions and created strip pieced curves and middle and corner background pieces using the Quick Curve Ruler.

When it came time to add the final two diagonal corner pieces however, instead of just adding one triangle, I added three triangles.  Two triangles were ironed in half and their ironed edges were butted up against each other on top of the original triangle before being sewn on.

Here are four of the blocks sewn together with their triangle corners meeting together in the centre.  I like how around the central square you can see a second ghost square.

Here the bias edges are pinned back into oranges peels revealing a flower underneath.

I then sewed the bias edges down.  I used yellow thread which I thought added to the affect and also meant I didn't have to change between pink and blue thread for such a small amount of sewing.

I sent the above and below pictures to my daughter with this message. "Is this what you had in mind?  These are not your fabrics so ignore the colours, just look at the shapes." To which she replied.  "YES!! That's exactly it!  I think it's so beautiful! :D"

Well, of course, I have to make the quilt that way now don't I!  I refer you again back to how the Metro Rings is a simplified version of the Double Wedding Rings Quilt..... Good thing I will be saving all that time with the strip piecing as I will need to use it with the addition of all those lovely little peek-a-boo orange peel flowers!  Actually, I think it is going to look really great, the four triangles coming together to form a square were kind of chunky looking and this totally changes that.  Even if I were to make this quilt without the peek-a-boo orange peel flowers, I think I would choose to use two triangles instead of one to reduce the chunkiness of the centre square and I like how it gives you a further opportunity to add another layer of shading of the rings.

I'm going to make eight more test blocks so I can make a 36" square test quilt which will help me practice the quilting and will also become a nice little baby quilt instead of just a few spare blocks left hanging around. By the way, the Metro Rings instructions were great and the rings can be sewn together without any pinning whatsoever - my kind of sewing!  I didn't have to rip out anything while making my practice blocks.  I had watched their Metro Rings Video Tutorial and it really helped.

Linking to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday

Throw Back Thursday - Diamond Log Cabin Quilt

I made this quilt for my nephew and his bride who were married in June of 2010.   It is made of 30 diamond shaped log cabin blocks.  I quilted straight lines across the background on my frame with my domestic sewing machine and quilted Celtic heart designs in the diamonds using a laser light following a paper pantograph.  Then I had to take the quilt off the frame, turn it 90 degrees and put it back on the frame and quilt the grid lines in the other direction. I wish I had a better picture of it.  This picture is from show and tell at my quilt guild.

When I washed it before packing it up to send off, some of the reds ran and one of the grey fabrics really soaked it up and became quite pink.  The white was fine as I remember it.  I washed it several times and ended up using "bleach for unbleachables" to get the pink out.  For several hours, I thought all my work had been ruined!  It didn't teach me anything, I still don't pre-wash my fabrics.

Touch Base Tuesday, More Planning than Sewing Today

Tomorrow I am going on a road trip with a couple of my Dear Jane group to purchase fabric at Avonport.  So this morning I spent time going through fabric to find all the suitable ROY G BIV rainbow fabrics I have for my Dear Jane Quilt so I will know what gaps I need to fill in. I'm very short of greens which really isn't a surprise.  I hope the quilt will look as good as my crayoned colour scheme!

I was also playing with the fabric combinations I have for my daughter and son-in-law-to-be's wedding quilt.  I had purchased a very light grey fabric for the background, but Ainsley would prefer a white tone on tone so will be on the look out for that as well.  The grey will be easily used somewhere else. I think I have enough of the main fabric.  The pattern is for 48 blocks, but I need to make 100, so a little over double the fabric requirements.  Once I have the background, I can start making blocks.

In the background of the above picture, you can see the Double Hour Glass Quilt I made in September that is all ironed and ready to go on the frame for quilting.

Bonnie Hunter's on Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt's last link up started yesterday and goes until Sunday, so I am going to see how much of that quilt I can get done before the deadline.  I made five more blocks today which gives me 26 done and 24 to go.  What's taking so much time is my flying geese units came out a little oversize so I am having to trim them all before I can sew the pieces together.

I also checked and so far I only have 23 blocks made for Bonnie Hunter's Leader and Ender Quilt.  I think the next one comes out in the summer so I will have to get a few more made.  I would like it to be a good sized comfort quilt, twin bed size would be nice.

And on the weekend Ainsley picked the fabric she wants for an apron.  So these are the projects I'm currently working on and dreaming about.  I say that because I woke up in the middle of the night making Dear Jane blocks in my sleep.  Making that second block yesterday after supper must have carried over into my dreams!

Dear Jane Quilt, F6, G7, H6 - 7 of 225

I made three more Dear Jane blocks today.  Actually I made four because I made H6 twice......

Here's G7 in parts, I used my smallest Drunkards Path templates for the quarter circles and then trimmed them down about 1/4" on each side.

And here is G7, the centre block of the quilt, completed.  It kind of looks like a bulls eye too.

The original F6 has little orange peels appliqued in the centre of it.  Well, I will do just about anything to avoid hand sewing so I made the centre like how you would make dimensional flying geese.  Here it is in parts.

And here it is with the bias edges of the flying geese pinned back to reveal the orange peels.

And here the curved edges have been sewn down by machine and F6 is complete.

A close up just for the fun of it.

I didn't think it was possible to avoid hand sewing on H6, so I made this block which was not great but was OK.

I got to looking at it and comparing it with the orange peels I had made in F6 and decided I could piece it the same way by creating bias edges to fold over.  Here's my revised H6 in parts.

And here is H6 sewn together.  I like it much better than the hand sewn one!

Here they are side by side for comparison.

And here are the seven I have made so far.  I am sewing them together as I go, working from the centre out.

I am enjoying this immensely!  Even making one of the blocks over again was fun, especially when it turned out so much better than the first one.  Now on to F8 and H8.

Another Apron

My son Bryan and his partner Catherine were here last evening because their power had been off since before they got up in the morning and it was getting rather cold at home.  They brought their new rescue dog Opie so we got to meet him for the first time.  He's a cutie, still a little unsure of himself in new situations, but gaining confidence each day.  With the help of a few treats, he let us pat him. Our own dog Raven was a little bit bossy, but I think they will become friends.

I had previously promised to make some kitchen aprons for my "kids".  Here's the apron I made Catherine with the fabric she chose last night.

I really like the fabric, here's a close up.

I also have it in blue and have some other fabric in the same line which is all milk bottle tops.  I should have asked Bryan if he wants his own, he likes to cook too.