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 L

The quilting on Row L has been completed.

Left side triangle 2 and block L1. By the time I was piecing the triangles, I had gotten pretty good at paper piecing. The point of triangle LS 2 was supposed to have an applique diamond, but I paper pieced it. It looks much better pieced than my applique.

Instead of simply quilting another square inside of a square, I’m quilting this curved square design. I think it looks more interesting. I had a friend stop in last week to look at the quilt, she knew the name of this quilting design. I don’t remember what she called it! I should have immediately written it down.

 

Blocks L2 and L3.

 

Blocks L4, L5 and L6. Curves make a more interesting quilting design in L4 than just stitching in the ditch would be.

Blocks L7, L8 and L9. I should have reversed the colors in L7, too much white. Used Baptist Fan to make a more interesting quilting design instead of just stitching in the ditch.

Blocks L10, L11 and L12. Here are 2 of the blocks I added circles to instead of the triangles Jane used. My applique skill isn’t good enough to applique those teeny, tiny triangles!

Block L13 and right side triangle 12.

Yards of thread used to date – 192.

I’ve sewn half of the Cherry Blossom quilt together. Whoops, see that one B block turned the wrong way? At least it is hasn’t been sewn into a row yet. That is an easy fix.

Linking up with Esther’s WOW, Freshly Pieced and My Quilt Infatuation.

Quilting Jane, Row M

The bottom row of the center part of the quilt has been quilted. I reversed the triangles for the left side border when I sewed them together. Triangle 1 is at the bottom of the quilt and triangle 13 is at the top. Remember, click on the picture to enlarge.

Left side triangle 1 and Blocks M1 and M2

 

Blocks M2, 3 and 4

 

Blocks M5, 6 and 7

 

Blocks M8, 9 and 10 – Most of the blocks in this quilt are made with very small pieces. Then Jane throws in a 9-patch block which doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the blocks. It just looks bigger than the other blocks even though it is the same size. I used a Baptist fan design instead of stitching in the ditch, more interesting quilting.

Blocks M11, 12 and 13 – I thought about quilting block M12 with the Baptist Fan but since M10 was so close, I decided to go with different design.

The narrow border between the triangle border and the center of the quilt is supposed to be 1/4″ wide. I didn’t like that size so I made my narrow border 1/2″ which is the same width as the sashing between the quilt blocks.

Right side triangle 13

153 yards of thread used so far.

 

Half of the Block B’s for the Cherry Blossom quilt have been completed. I couldn’t wait to see what they looked like so I pinned 3 A’s and 3 B’s on the display wall. The yellow 9 patches don’t show very well, but I think this will be an interesting quilt anyway.

Linking with Esther’s WOW, Freshly Pieced, A Quilting Reader’s Garden and Kathy’s Sunday Slow Stitching.

Quilting Jane, the Bottom Triangle Row

When the two side feather borders of Jane were quilted, up to the 6th row, I started on the bottom triangle row. I’m not doing anything special in the pieced triangle blocks, mainly stitching in the ditch and then outlining in the larger pieces. I’m using the same idea for quilting the white alternate triangles that Jane did in her quilt, inverted V’s. From what I can see, she had 3 V’s in her quilt so she must have marked for 3/4″ lines. I’ve marked mine at 1/2″ so I have 4 V’s.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

 

Here is my progress so far. Bottom left corner and 1st Bottom  Row triangle

 

 

Bottom Row triangles – 2, 3 and 4

 

 

Bottom Row triangles – 5, 6 and 7

 

 

Bottom Row triangles – 8, 9 and 10

 

 

Bottom Row triangles – 11, 12 and 13.

 

Bottom Right Corner

Some of the triangles look so crooked, especially triangles 10 and 13. They really aren’t crooked, it must be the angle of the camera. Yards of thread used so far – 108.

 

I’ve been sewing the HST’s together for the Cherry Blossom quilt and I made 6 flannel receiving blankets for charity. I’m almost finished signing the siggie blocks then I have another hand project to start.

I’m linking up to Esther’s WOW, Kathy’s Quilts, Slow Stitching Sunday and Cooking up Quilts.

 

Prep Work

Since I’ve completed the embroidered quilt, I’ve  been focusing on prepping projects.

I need 67 attic window blocks for the siggie swap during the Jane Stickle Quilt retreat in November. They’re prepped and ready to be sewn. I’ve cut extra fabric to make more blocks. Not all of my friends are participating in the swap and I want their signatures too. There are enough prepped pieces for 80 blocks. I thought an 8 x 10 block layout would be the easiest setting.

I didn’t buy fabric for these blocks but used from my stash. The top dark blue was leftover from a project many, many years ago and the other blue is from the embroidered UFO quilt I just finished piecing last week.

I have no idea where the top medium  blue fabric came from. The middle one is another leftover from a project and the bottom fabric is from my mom’s stash. Muslin fabric is used for the signature section.

The sashings for the Salinda Rupp/Nearly Insane quilt have been cut and sewn. I purchased the sashing fabric after the August Inspiration Club held at  Pumpkinvine Quilting. (Designated fabric purchases are ok.) A soft yellow is the color I’ve gone with and I’m using the blue fabric leftover from Jane for the cornerstones.

The yellow shows lighter here than it actually is, but in the block photo below, it shows brighter than it actually is.

The side sashings have been sewn to block 1. The other pieces are pinned on the design wall. (I have to pin them in the summer because the ceiling fan blows them off the wall!)

 

 

The 2-patches have been sewn into 4-patch blocks. They need to be pressed but they are the lowest priority project. I’m always intrigued when I chain stitch blocks, how they spill over the edge of my sewing machine cabinet, onto the floor and then drape into a beautiful swirl.

The 600 HST’s for the Cherry Blossom quilt are ready to go. There seems to be an overabundance of brown fabric. I’ll probably piece half of the block B’s and then decide if I need some color changes for the last bunch.

The main focus these weeks has been on marking Jane so she can go in the quilting frame the first Saturday in September. But I decided not to wait until September and got her into the frame last Saturday.

I used a very fine point blue marker to mark the quilting. It doesn’t show in the picture but it is dark enough for me to see when I quilt. The first thing I did was to baste stitch the outside edge. I had marked a line for this and when she is bound, I will lay the edge of the binding on the basting thread.

My Jane has feather borders because I don’t like the scallops that were on the original quilt. I had originally planned to use a different feather stencil and she would have had a scalloped border but I changed my mind. I ran into Donna Kooistra at the AQS show in Grand Rapids and asked her thoughts (as a quilt appraiser) on my plan for the markings. She mentioned several things to take into consideration and one of them was the size of the feather compared to the pieced blocks. After I was home, I compared the quilting stencil to the pieced blocks and the feathers were too large in comparison. I bought several more feather stencils and this was the one that looked the best. So, the border is going to be straight, not scalloped.

I will be posting weekly progress on my quilting. I have no idea how long the quilting will take.

Cherry Blossom Quilt

 

Summer is flying by and it is a very busy time here on the farm, but I have made some time for sewing.

I’m well on the way to recovering from my Jane burnout. I’ve progressed from just sewing strips together, to sewing the 3″ finished 9-patch blocks I pieced last winter into double 9-patches . . . 42 double 9-patches. These are block A for the Cherry Blossom Quilt.

I’ve pieced the centers for the 
for the 30 B blocks. One inch finished HST’s are to be attached next. I have the Thangles ready to sew but it is going to take a while to sew the 600 HST’s needed.

The Cherry Blossom Quilt pattern was designed by Karen H. and you can find the pattern on her blog, faeriesandfibres.blogspot.com. Click on Patterns by Karen H. (She asks that links go directly to her blog.) She has some very pretty patterns she has designed.

The bindings are completed for the 4 little quilts I’ve quilted this summer.

The little Snowman Quilt is a kit I bought a year ago at the Red Button Quilt  Co. booth during the Grand Rapids AQS show in August. He measures 16 1/2″ x 19 1/2″. The middle two were projects from the Prairie Women Sewing Circle, year 3. I especially like the cheddar flange binding on the cheddar and black quilt. The cheddar/black quilt measures 25″ x 29 1/2″. I thought the next quilt was red and black but now I see the red doesn’t stand out as much as I thought it would. I should have added a red flange to the binding. The red/black size is 21″ x 25″. The right quilt was a free pattern from the Temecula Quilt Co. called the 12 Days of Christmas. He measures 18″ x 22″.

The backsides of the 2 left quilts. Both were hand quilted.

 

 

 

 

 

And the 2 quilts hanging on the right side. The left one was hand quilted and the right quilt was stitched on my sewing machine. I was too lazy to attach the even feed foot to my machine so it is not smooth. But that just makes it an interesting texture.

 

 

I decided I was going to use purple fabrics to piece the Seeing Stars BOM by Turning Twenty. I had planned to use a mixture of regular fabrics and batiks but when I started looking, I decided to go with just batiks. It’s amazing what beautiful fabrics we can find in our stashes if we just look. Some of the batiks look blue but have some purple shading in them.

Seeing Stars is a 6 month BOM with 2 patterns coming a month. I’ve downloaded the first 4 patterns but I’ll wait to start until I have the next 2 patterns. I’ll have a busy week of piecing the blocks, then put it all away until I have the rest of the patterns. BOM’s are fun but they get too draggy sometimes, at least it seems that way to me. I’m more of a get ‘er done sort of person.

The 1-1/2″ strips I have been sewing are sewn. Now I’m sub-cutting them into twosies. It doesn’t take long, I use my mat with the 1/2″ slits, then I’ll sew them together and make 4-patches. This is going to be a very slow, very long-term piecing project. After I get the 4 patches pieced, I’ll decide what is next. I have several possibilities I’m turning over in my mind.

Linking up with Esther’s Wednesday WOW! and My Quilt Infatuation NTT and A Quilting Reader’s Garden.