I got a very simple block finished this morning – it could have been more difficult than it was if I had pieced it instead of applique – but I decided to applique this block instead making it so easy it didn’t even take any hour to make. The last row - only 13 more blocks are left to do — then of course the border. We can not forget the border LOL. Some people leave the border off as by this point they throw in the towel 
and wimp out (just teasing!) or just because they don’t feel like it I guess. To me though the border with the triangles and the scallops on the edges really ties the whole quilt together and makes it finish so nicely so onward I will go!
Row 12 Block 13!
I did get row 12 sewed to the other rows but I didn’t get a photo of it. I will take a photo of all 13 rows when I get this last row finished.
I hope in two more weeks I will be done with all of the blocks and then I will fold it away and start preparing several applique blocks to take on the trip. Also I need to finish drawing lines for quilting on the Baltimore Bliss and baste the quilt together. Hope all have had a good weekend.
Well I did it – I brought the Dear Jane quilt to North Little Rock today and delivered it to my daughter Melanie:
you can hardly see her but there she is under her new quilt
I finished one more block last night -
Row 12, Block 12 (L-12)
14 blocks left to make and sew the final two rows together. Then it will be set aside until the fall most likely and then I will get started on the borders. Now if I can just stay motivated to keep to this schedule!!
Moving right along, one more block done this morning and working on another one this evening, here is block 11 from row 12:
Row 12 block 11
I have not gotten done with a lot today other than getting the grass cut this evening. In the heat of the day work I did some quilting on the Christmas quilt !! It will get done one day
I was looking through projects trying to figure out what was coming up to finish or work on some more and realized it is actually almost the end of the month so the Star Crazy patterns will come out in a couple days and then I can get the June assignment done. I’m trying to decide what to bring along to work on when we travel this summer. I am getting the Baltimore Bliss quilt ready to quilt and will bring the hoop and the quilt along to quilt on the road. I have more of the design to draw on the top, then baste and it will be ready to travel. But knowing me I need one other project to work on for when my fingers get sore of quilting and for variety- we do have some down time for sight seeing and hiking after all. I do not want to bring the Dear Jane triangles to work on – I know I need a break if I get done with all of the blocks before we go. I think I might prep a block or two for the Red and Green Traditional Applique as I only have one block for that quilt completed. If I prep a block or two all I will need to bring with me to work on that is thread and needle – I will of course already have needles and thimble packed so really will take up very little space. I think I will do that.
Well that was easy to decide LOL. I will get busy prepping some blocks in between working on other things this month. The Bow Tie Medallion is coming along nicely although no rush so although it is coming along nicely it is coming along slowly I just counted up blocks and I have 21 of the large ties (need 140 for queen size) and I have 12 of the smaller ties and I need 56 of those. So many more to go!
I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.
Two more examples of small block sampler quilts – only difference between these and Dear Jane is the size of the blocks are a little larger and also they use more traditional blocks that most all have heard of. The Dear Jane blocks seem very unusual almost like Jane wanted to make the blocks as difficult at moments to make as possible – maybe to distract her from the war news going on around her?
I had heard of the Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler patterns – by Jennifer Chiaverini for some time and have meant to pick up the book for ages and never got around to it. The Farmers Wife by Laurie Aaron Hird is newer and has only been out for about six months I think. Astrid from Grandma’s Red Needle had mentioned the other day that she has both books and is intending on starting to make them soon. We send e mails back and forth from time to time and discussed me making one of these sometime in the future after my second Dear Jane is finished and I thought no time better to track down copies of the books and start looking them over. More sampler books that I have are “Nearly Insane” and “Just Plain Nuts” by Liz Lois (I just love the names of these books!). Maybe instead of doing each quilt from each book I should pick out patterns from all four books and combine into one large quilt? All of the blocks from these books are six inch blocks I believe so that would make it easy to mix and match. If or when I get around to starting this new venture it would be a scrap quilt with a white/cream background like the first Dear Jane quilt but the difference would be that I would make this one much larger so it would fit on a queen or king size bed.
Whatever I decide it certainly will not be until I am finished with the second Dear Jane quilt “Insanity Revisited.”
The new books:
I buy most of my books from Amazon.com. I have no local quilt shop to support so it doesn't really matter where I buy from. I have noticed in recent months that Amazon quite often has prices for new quilt books priced lower than the used copies!! You might want to check them out. I saved on both and got the two combined for the price of one. I also buy books from the American Quilters Society but I admit to saving money when I can and buy where I can save some dollars.
I visited my mother yesterday for the day and have Lifeline in place for her and all the paperwork done. While I was visiting one of my brothers – David – stopped by for a quick visit with mom as he was in her town for business from work. I missed seeing him last time I was there so that was a nice surprise as I hadn’t seen him since Christmas, he was surprised I was there as well as I had intended to contact all siblings once again after I had things set up to let them know their share on the price, the appointment was set up much faster than I had anticipated. David lives a bit further from my mom then quite a few of the siblings do that live in Arkansas. It was a nice surprise for mom too. I had talked to one of my sisters a couple days before so Mary had stopped by for a short visit also. After all left and it was just mom and I we went out and got a little shopping done, got something icy to drink it being such a hot day and then went back to her apartment for a short while before I took off for the 2 hour drive back home. I think she will be pleased with Lifeline and feel more secure knowing that if she falls or is very sick and can’t reach a phone that they are within a button’s reach away. I recommend all of you with elderly parents look in to this product – I have no affiliation with the company – just pleased with all I had heard about it and the person who came out to install and talk was very nice.
I hope everyone has a nice Memorial Day Weekend here in the states. Sunday we are going to Little Rock to visit with our daughter and son-in-law for part of the day and to deliver “Insanity” (Dear Jane) to them. Melanie has been waiting for its arrival for some time now. When I finished it in November I told her I needed to enjoy it for awhile before it left my house for her house – I thought six months of agony on her part was plenty
by Karen on May 26, 2010
in quilts
In between working on the “Insanity Revisited” blocks and quilting on the Christmas Quilt I have been cutting and piecing blocks from the 1800′s reproduction fabric that I told you all about last week. This is what I have done so far:
not the normal kind of fabric I usually work with.
This is not even a quarter of the quilt according to the photo in the book. I will keep making more blocks and see how many I come up with. I will end up having to get my design wall out and set up in order to do a good color layout when it comes time to put it together. I have not been totally concentrating on this quilt but just sitting for short periods of time at the featherweight and making two or three blocks and then get up and do something else. No rush! It won’t get quilted for quite some time as I have that big quilt waiting in line before it that I made earlier this year with the circles “Going in Circles”.
Now to get started on that “Insanity Revisited” block that I mentioned yesterday with all the Y seams. As much as I would like to skip this one it needs to get done so I will struggle through LOL
I got another one finished last night and then another one during the day today:
Row 12, Block number 8 - another easy one - because tomorrow it is a doozy!
Row 12, block 9
Block number 10 (L-10) is a wild piece – 42 pieces I believe and a lot of Y seams. I might get to it tomorrow or that one might wait until Friday – we will see.
Thursday I am off to see my mom once again. I am helping her get “lifeline” set up. That is the company that helps older people stay in their homes longer taking care of themselves. It makes them feel more secure. One wears a necklace like pendant that has a button on it – if you fall or need immediate help you push the button and it connects you to an emergency number where they have your information already saved on their computers – they know where you live and can send you help immediately. I told my siblings I would get it set up and take care of the monthly payments. We are dividing up the yearly amount and all kicking in an equal amount to help mom out. I tell you this is once again a great time to have a large family – 10 siblings dividing up something like this comes to about $42.00 a year for each of us – very affordable and we have the safer feeling of being assured that mom can get help right away if she falls and not be laying on the floor without being able to get to a phone. Mom has not fallen yet and so we are glad of that but better to think of something like this and have it in place before a fall does happen. We all need to think of things like this as our parents get into very old age – this will extend the time that mom can maintain independent living.
I really and truly want to get finished with all of my Insanity Revisited blocks before the end of June and I’m going to try hard to do it. 19 more blocks to do.
Row 12, Block 7 - such a nice and easy block what a break after some of the ones done recently.
Now excuse the quality of the next couple photos – I was wandering the yard this morning and didn’t have my camera with me but I did have my new cell phone with me so I snapped some photos with it.
These purple flowers are from a plant called "Mimosa Pudica" some consider it a pest and others like it. I have seen them before but we never had them growing freely before on our land. These are growing in our wild garden area so for now they are welcome - I will see what they do and if they over take the area too much they will be banished!
I don't know the name for this wild flower (weed?) I like it though, we have three clusters of these orange flowers growing in the wild area also - I didn't plant them they just grew - does anyone know what they are? When they fully open I will take another photo - I need to get my wild flower book out and see if it is listed.
the lilies are starting to open - I have several varieties that are blooming now. This is in the wild garden also. When I was trimming out some of the trees that were growing in this area a couple weeks ago I found a new red bud tree growing - it actually wasn't new as it was already about 4 feet tall but it was spindly as it was so overwhelmed by all of the other trees growing in the area. I will need to stake it up as when I went over there today I noticed it has not popped up as I had hoped it would - the other trees had it bending to the ground which is why I had not noticed it previously. It is on the opposite side of the hill from these lilies.
I have been busy looking at all the quilts on the quilt festival – so many wonderful quilts it is amazing to see. Thank you all who have left comments on the quilt I posted about. I am trying to work my way through the entry’s and think it will be several weeks before I get caught up.
I had not kept up on posting photos of my Dear Jane blocks from “Insanity Revisited” lately. I have completed 3 more leaving me with 20 blocks left to make before getting busy on the border. I would like to finish the blocks before we leave on our summer trip – then I will take a 2 month break from Jane and get started on the border in the fall.
Row 12 block 4
Row 12 block 5
Row 12 block 6
Not perfection – crooked pieces but I really have reached the point of not caring!! After all with 100% cotton batting when the quilt is washed it will shrink up a little and I have learned from the first Jane that the imperfections are not really all that noticeable so why worry about it
I have gotten started on the Bow Tie Medallion quilt and found something funny that I had forgotten about. I took a picture of this same quilt only 2 months ago at the once a month evening group Cutting Loose meeting in April and had totally forgotten about it. Dee made the quilt and showed the top at the meeting. I had posted a photo of it here. She had shown quite a few quit tops that evening and it didn’t register to me until I happened to be looking back through photos the other day and there was the quilt top that I am currently making – different colors of course but the same quilt. I have made 12 of the large blocks and about 3 or 4 of the blocks with the smaller ties. I was going to hand piece and started out that way but after only making one block I realized with the Kona cotton background fabric that I am using it will be better to machine piece. Kona cotton has a little stretch to it and with handling it so much with hand piecing I was going to have a problem with the blocks being square. I will machine piece it instead and continue to enjoy hand piecing with the Dear Jane quilt. That will give me a variety – hand piecing, machine piecing and hand quilting the Christmas quilt — all of that should keep me busy for the next 5 weeks or so before our trip.
Amy’s Creative Side is having another Quilt Festival she is asking people to enter a quilt and she has all kinds of sponsors giving away prizes.
The quilt that really took a lot of work in it for me and that I am proud of accomplishing is my first Dear Jane quilt. Some of you know all about my Dear Jane that I named “Insanity” as I felt I must have been insane to start that quilt. Throughout my blog I have talked about it numerous times. (click on photos to enlarge)
My completed Dear Jane "Insanity"
I started this quilt on my daughter Melanie’s birthday February 23, 2005 so it is only fitting that this quilt is going to her. I hand pieced the whole quilt and hand quilted it. I finished quilting it November 13, 2009 It took me 4 years and 9 months to complete it. Of course I took quite a few breaks and made other quilts during this time. I had to take breaks or I would have truly gone insane! LOL Anyone who is making this quilt knows what I mean.
This quilt has 4,928 pieces in it. It is a charm quilt in that each block uses a different fabric. It took me 645 hours and 30 minutes to make it. Yes I kept a journal as many of us Janiacs do.
My daughter and I with THE QUILT
It resided on my bed for about 5 months and now at the end of this month after finally putting a label and a hanging sleeve on it I will be giving it to my daughter at the end of the month when I see her. She will be hanging it on a wall so her dog will not do any damage to it.
One of the main things I learned about quilting and through this quilt is that Kona Cotton does not work really well with hand piecing small pieces. I never plan to use it again for a quilt like this although I dearly love that fabric — just not with a quilt like this – it has a little stretch to it and also had a problem with raveling edges.
When I finished this quilt I had no intention on ever making another like it but after only 3 weeks I went into withdrawal from my addiction to Dear Jane and started a second one! I am calling this one “Insanity Revisited” as I really and truly must be insane to start a second one. This one is in red and butter cream batiks. It will go to my other daughter one day. I have been hand piecing it also and I am almost done with all the squares and will soon be moving on to the triangle border.
The second quilt looks like this so far:
Sometime down the road if Amy has another festival and I am finished with the top I will feature this one. 11 of the 13 needed rows of blocks is done.
by Karen on May 21, 2010
in quilts
Last night after I posted I went back over the several patterns that had caught my eye almost immediately earlier in the day when I first started looking at patterns.
Thank you everyone for your suggestions. It is always so nice to hear what others would make and you know a lot of you suggested just doing simple blocks and I need simple right now. Sometimes I get caught up in making something challenging and then get tired or frustrated with it — but simple old fashion scrap quilts have always been my favorites. There is just something about the old fashioned scrap quilt that is appealing to me and among all of my quilts they are always the ones I love the best and rarely give away. I think old fashioned scrap quilts are really what got me started quilting in the first place 30 years ago (has it really been that long! of course I didn’t know what I was doing then and really got into it 20 years or so ago) Anyway I digress from the topic -
I have this book:
anyone else have this book? It is full of good old fashioned scrap quilts - some with a little new twist to them, but mainly just nice easy blocks to work with.
There had been a pattern in here that I remembered had caught my eye right after I bought it – but you know we buy so many books and have so many patterns how are we supposed to remember them all LOL. I think what I really need to do is go through one book a week at least to remind myself of what I have! I couldn’t find any links to this pattern so here is the photo from the book – anyhow this is the pattern that I decided to make:
This uses one block in two different sizes - the so very easy Bow Tie Block - which believe it or not I have never made! It is such an easy block - very basic beginner block - but yet this pattern has such a nice layout that it almost looks more difficult than it is. I don't know if I have enough fabric to make it the queen size shown but I am just going to start and see what happens. I might need to pull some out of scrap boxes to fill in if I get close to having enough to make this size as I really like this layout.
There is only one strip of my fabric that I won’t use for it and it was the very lightest of the light strips – it is mainly white with a small red flower print on it but it will blend in to the background too much so that strip will be put in with my scraps. I know I have some small flower prints among my scraps that I can use if needed to fill in and match with these fabrics.
