Dear Jane Milestone - All 169 Centre Blocks Completed

Yesterday I finished the last Dear Jane Block to complete the centre of the quilt and today I added row M to the top and then a row of sashing all around so now I am ready to concentrate on the border rows of triangles.  I can't wait until the end of the post to show you, so here's a picture of the full centre of 169 blocks sewn together!

On April 15, I sewed block M3.  I think this was the most difficult of the Dear Jane Blocks as it was all set in seams, partial seams and Y seams.  I did not do all of the inset sewing for the border.  I just kept adding strips which I could sew straight across each side of the octagon.  I still ended up adding triangles to each corner to get the square shape but it was much easier than all the wedge shaped pieces with mitered corners pictured.

M3 closeup.

On April 23 I was able to sew three blocks starting with paper piecing the diamonds in M11.

M11 closeup.

Next I made M4.  I changed the corner black squares a little by omitting the frame on the two outer edges.  I could have made the final corner triangles a bit bigger, but I'm satisfied with how the block turned out.  The yellow in this picture is more true than the yellow in the closeup.

M4 closeup.

And finally M10 which turned out to be the easiest block in Dear Jane so far.

M10 closeup.

The next time I was able to sew on Dear Jane was 28 April.  Our Dear Jane Bee got together via zoom and sewed for nearly 6 hours which was great fun!  I started with piecing M5 which was quite an easy block.

M5 closeup.

Then I sewed M9 by using strip sets.  It looks more complicated than it actually is.

M9 closeup.

Continuing on I finished M6.  The row of pieces around the central octagon were sewn on with partial seams but they went on easily.

M6 closeup.

And then I sewed M8.  I left off the red teeny-tiny triangles at the tips of the black diagonal lines because they were so small I thought the difficulty of adding them wasn't worth it.  I'm very happy with the block the way it is.

M8 closeup.

Then I was down to the last block!  Wouldn't you know it though, M7 turned out to be an applique block which would have been extremely difficult to turn into a cathedral window block.  So, I bit the bullet and made it as an applique block.  I didn't get it finished while our group was zooming, but kept on sewing afterwards and had it done before getting supper ready.  Without further ado, here's my final Dear Jane block M7.  I think my applique has improved over the course of this quilt, but still far from great.

M7 closeup.

This morning right after breakfast I got row M all sewn together and sewed an outer row of sashing to it before attaching it to the quilt centre.  Three more rows of sashing and I was done!  Here's another picture of the completed centre of the quilt but it also shows the 9 triangles I already have sewn for the top border row which means I only have to make 4 more triangles and my first border will be complete too!

Still having tons of fun with this Dear Jane quilt and spurred on to get all the triangles sewn now!

Sewcialites Blocks 27 and 28

I made both of these blocks during the week they came out but I didn't get around to blogging about them.  Here is my Sewcialites block number 27 from 16 April called Earnest.

And here is my block number 28 from 23 April called Hope.

Only eight blocks left to go!

Earth Day Sewing

I saved two large sunflower seed bags from feeding the birds this past winter to turn into reusable bags with handles.  Here's a picture of one of the bags before I cut it up.  They are made of a tarp type of woven plastic material.

Next time I have one of these bags, I'll open it better so I can use more of the blue jay in the finished bags.  I had to trim his wing off just above his head because of the jagged way I opened both bags.  I was able to cut the bottoms off both bags and turn both of them into bags by boxing the corners and turning a 1.5" facing strip to the inside of the bag top to reinforce the top edge for attaching handles.  Unfortunately the chickadee ends up decapitated in order to make similar sized bags and also to avoid having the word "Noir" appear on the outside of the bag.  I cut the bags in half horizontally between the words "Tournesol" and "Noir".  I cut the front and back sections of both bag tops apart and used two fronts to make a third bag and both backs to make six handles and also sewn in facings for the third bag.   Each bag is 13" tall, 6" deep and 15" wide.  Here are the three bags I made.

I used a heavier duty needle in my machine, especially necessary when I was sewing through the handles which were triple thick and the top of the bags which were double thick.  Here's another picture of the three bags and the small piece I had leftover.

Happy Earth Day!

Sewcialites

 Another Friday, another new Sewcialites block.  This is block 26 of 36 called Courage.

My design wall was busy with another project so I didn't take it's picture with the other blocks I've made so far.  Here are blocks 19 to 25.

And blocks 1 to 18.

Getting close, only 10 more to go!

Progress on Dear Jane

On Thursday I was able to work on Dear Jane and I made four more blocks for the final row M.  I pieced them all.

M1 I chose to piece the centre differently than the checkerboard on the diagonal with triangular corners so then I had to just add strips around it.  I chose to make the black line thinner than pictured also.

M1 closeup.

M13 was a block that leant itself to using a Cathedral window technique.

M13 closeup.

M2

M2 closeup.

M12 was easily made with strip piecing.

M12 closeup.  Sorry, I didn't realize this block was so out of focus.

I also sewed column 1 and 13 to my top so here's a picture of the centre of the quilt complete except for the bottom row M and showing the triangles I have done so far for the top border.

I only have 9 more blocks to make and then 47 more triangles.

Two BOM's and one BOW

On Monday I got to work on two Block of the Months and one Block of the Week.  First up I worked on the Sewcialites block of the week from the previous Friday.  This week's block was called Virtue and is the 25th of 36.

Here are my blocks 19-25.

Next I worked on the Scott Flanagan Block of the Month our guild is running.  This is block 4 called Tulip Blossoms.

Here are my four blocks so far.

While I was working on the above blocks, I sewed together block halves made in Part 2 of the Mayflower Mystery Quilt #1 to make the final blocks for the centre of this quilt.  Here's a picture of what 16 blocks will look like together.  None of these blocks halves are sewn together yet, I just put them up on my design wall so I could see what the quilt is going to end up looking like.

I'll continue putting these blocks together as I sew other things.

Sewcialites Quilt Along, Block 24

The Sewcialites quilt along is now three quarters done.   Here is my block 24 called Abundant.

Here are my blocks 19 to 24.

And here are my blocks 1 to 18.

We currently have tulips and daffodils coming up in our yard but none have bloomed yet.