Photograph Problems

Since I have completed the top feather border of my Jane quilt, the quilt is more than half quilted! I would love to show you a picture of my progress. Unfortunately, I am having a problem with the card in my camera, pictures won’t download onto my computer! My computer technician (son 2) is coming for a visit the middle of November. He said he thought he could solve the problem. Until then, my blog will be photoless (is that a word?).

So I guess I won’t be posting until the picture situation is resolved. I’ll keep on quilting Jane and working on other projects. You will get an update sometime in November, I hope!

Blessings to you all. Gretchen

Quilting Jane, Row I

I hope my posts about quilting my Jane Stickle quilt aren’t getting too boring; quilting Jane is my main focus project. Row I is now completed and the yards of thread used is 313. As always, click on each picture to enlarge.

LST5 and block I1. I paperpieced the little triangle in the point of LST5. The 9-patches of I1 are stitched in the ditch and curvy square in the blue squares.

Blocks I2, I3 and I4. All 3 of these blocks are stitched in the ditch.

 

Blocks I5 and I6. Stitch in the ditch for I5, stitch in the ditch and a little outline ditch for I6. I did a different background design for a change.

Blocks I7, I8 and I9. Stitched in the ditch for all 3 of the blocks. Now block I7 is supposed to have 4 teeny-tiny triangles in the blue sashing but I left them off. This was before I had decided to start appliquing circles. I’ve made a note to remind myself, when the quilt is finished and out of the frame, to applique 4 teeny-tiny circles on this block. I’m not talented enough to applique them while the quilt is in the frame. I could try it, but I don’t think they’d look very nice.

Blocks I10, I11 and I12. Just added some quilted triangles to I10 along with stitch in the ditch. I11 is all stitched in the ditch while I added circles in the center of I12 along with stitching in the ditch.

Blocks I13 and RST9. More stitch in the ditch.

 

I’ve rolled enough times that I am able to move the bottom quilt stick and put the rest of the quilt in the frame. Now I’m quilting feathers again. When I started quilting Jane, it was fun and exciting to finally start and I enjoyed quilting the feathers on the outside border. Now the feathers are rather boring to quilt but they need to be finished before I can quilt anymore of the inside.

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep? This happened to me the other night so I got up and finished pressing the 4-patch blocks I had sewn. There are more blocks than what show in the picture.

After they were pressed, I started laying them on my design wall. I want this to be a simple and quick quilt. I normally like quilts that are set on point the best, but I’m liking the straight set. What do you think? The blocks will finish at 8″ finished and there will be more colors than pink and green.

Linking up to Esther’s Wednesday Wow, Freshly Pieced WIP’s, My Quilt Infatuation NIT, A Quilting Reader’s Garden, Richard and Tanya’s Quilts, Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday, Oh Scrap, Love Laugh Quilt, Patchwork Times, Cooking Up Quilts and Quilt Story.

Whoops, I hit the wrong button. I didn’t intend to send this post until Wednesday. Oh well.

 

End of the Growing Season; Start of the New

The 2015 growing season is pretty much at an end. On August 29th, the soybeans were still dark green with just a very few leaves starting to turn yellow.

It didn’t even take a month for the beans to dry down. I took this picture on Friday, September 25th. About an hour after the picture was taken, the combine moved into this field and harvested the beans.

On the following Monday and Tuesday, the Farmer worked the soil and then on Wednesday, September 30th, planted winter wheat. The wheat is up, growing and will be harvested in the summer of 2016.

The narrow row, in between the field radishes in the garden, is where the Amaryllis bulbs were growing. I dug them up last Saturday, washed the roots and laid them in my garden wagon to air dry. I pull the wagon outside into the yard during the day; in the evening I put it back into the garage. They look nice and healthy. The leaves will be cut off after they have dried, then the bulbs will be stored in the basement until I’m ready to start potting them in November. I’ll pot a few bulbs every 2 weeks so I have continuous blooms during the dreary days of January, February and into March.

I tilled the soil where the amaryllis were and then planted garlic cloves. They should push through by the end of October; winter over and start growing again as soon as the soil warms up next spring.

So, as my title says, it is the end of the growing season but next year’s growing season has started.

Quilting Jane, Row J

I am moving right along on Jane and row J is now completed.

Left side triangle 4 and block J1. I thought about doing some echo quilting on block J1, but I don’t like to echo quilt so I didn’t. I thought a Baptiste Fan background would look good and it does.

Blocks J2, J3 and J4. I thought about quilting a circle in the center of J3, but just did curvy squares.

Blocks J5, J6 and J7. I looked in the Dear Jane book to see how Jane quilted blocks J6 and J7. She quilted them both alike but I didn’t want two blocks quilted exactly the same next to each other. She had quilted an X in the 9-patch block in J6, but I stitched the seams in the ditch. For J7, I quilted the curvy squares in the solid white squares and stitched in the ditch for the 9-patches.

Blocks J8 and J9. Just did stitch in the ditch and then curvy square in the center of J9. I know, my melon points aren’t the greatest. I should have just appliqued circles.

Blocks J10, J11 and J12. Stitched in the ditch around the melons in J10 and quilted melons in the center. When I pieced this block, I had appliqued the white melons that are supposed to be in the center. I didn’t like the way they looked so I took them off. I used the Baptiste Fan stencil for background in J11 and just had straight line background in J12.

Block J13 and right side triangle 9. Stitched in the ditch.

As always, click on the picture to enlarge.

272 yards of thread used to date. When I started quilting Jane, I really had no idea how many yards of thread I would use. I actually thought Jane might break the 1000 yard barrier but I don’t anticipate that happening now. The most yards of thread I have quilted in a quilt is 759. That was a king size I custom quilted many years ago.

The center of the Cherry Blossom quilt is sewn together. I’ve added a reddish/brown fabric for a narrow border. For the outside border, Karen H. (click on patterns by Karen H.) added a plain fabric border but I’m not going to do that. I want a pieced border. I’ve been mulling over 3 possibilities for the border, none of which I’ve ever pieced before. I’m going to put Cherry Blossoms away until I decide which border to piece.

I leave for the Jane Stickle Quilt Retreat five weeks from today, I need to get busy and prep the projects I want to work on there!

Linking up to Esther’s Wednesday Wow, Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday, Oh Scrap, Love, Laugh, Quilt, Cooking Up Quilts, Patchwork Times and Quilt Story.

Quilting Jane, Row K

With the completion of row K, I’ve used 232 yards of thread.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them. Here are the blocks . . .

Left side triangle 3 and block K1. I pieced row K blocks the first part of April. It is interesting to revisit these blocks.

Blocks K2, K3 and K4. If I ever make another Jane, I will eliminate the narrow border that is added to some of the blocks, like K2 and K3.

Blocks K5, K6 and K7. I think my favorite block in this row is K7. It really looks like a flower but I didn’t plan for that to happen. I just quilted those circles in the center because I don’t like to echo quilt.

Blocks K8, K9 and K10. I had to look at K10 awhile to decide what the design is actually supposed to be. Stitched in the ditch.

Blocks K11 and K12. These were fast and easy blocks to quilt.

 

Block K13 and the right side triangle 12. I altered RT12. I eliminated the narrow white border and changed the point of the triangle. More stitch in the ditch quilting.

It’s been a busy week. I haven’t had time to work on my new applique project or to finish sewing the Cherry Blossom blocks together.

Linking up to Esther’s WOW, Freshly Pieced, My Quilt Infatuation, A Quilting Reader’s Garden and Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

Wilfred & Cloves

I really like the quilt, Wilfred & Cloves from Creating Heirlooms, One Stitch at a Time by Carolyn Konig. I’ve been wanting to make this quilt ever since I bought the book several years ago.

I’m going to start by appliqueing the center medallion. The stems have been appliqued, but now I’m at a standstill. I don’t like the fabric I selected for the diamonds and need to choose another material. I’m having some friends critique the fabrics I’ve pulled for this project and see what they think.

I have hand quilting for a hand project until I come up with the new choice of fabrics, but before I start quilting, I think I’ll make a cup of tea and enjoy looking at the quilts in the Red & White Quilts, Infinite Variety book.

I gave the Wakarusa Public Library information about this book last summer. Friday afternoon they called and said the book was here! I ran to Waky Saturday and picked her up. There are so many quilts to look at, I may not even get to quilting today.

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday and Freshly Pieced.