I’ve been busy!

I’ve been busy the last few days working on a quilt for Xmas for a friend. I’ve finally gotten the top completed, I’ll pin it Sunday and start quilting it on Monday. If I’m lucky I’ll have it ready for binding by the holiday and can be working on that after we eat! I can’t post any pics until after Xmas, I don’t know if she reads my blog or not!

The last 2 evenings I spent working on taking embroidery out of a jacket for my dad – someone gave him the jacket and the words just didn’t make sense for him to keep it on there. It was hard, but it looks pretty good – you can’t even tell the stitching was there!

I have about 8 DJ blocks I’ve completed in the last week, I’ve just been too busy to post them yet! I’m up to 33 blocks and 1 triangle (649 pieces) completed. The triangle was easier than I thought because it was paper pieced! Since I’m going to work on pinning the quilt Sunday, maybe I’ll work on more blocks tomorrow night after I get home. My mom, sister and I are going to Kidron, which is Amish country in Ohio. We’ve been making it an annual trip the last 3 years, The Amish Door has AWESOME food! You will never leave there hungry! I will be picking up some fabric at Hearthside Quilt Shoppe in Kidron for my DJ quilt that I will be using as the sashing. So I will be able to start putting rows together soon!

Time to go and relax on the couch until bed!

Something Other Than Dear Jane!

Just a quick note, I have 8 more DJ blocks done, but I’m not posting about them right now! My husband and my sister-in-law are going ghost hunting this weekend at the Mansfield prison – yes I did say ghost hunting! Last time they went I made a bag for my husband to carry all his “tools” in so nothing got lost. Of course, my sister-in-law wanted one too! Since their trip is so close I figured I’d better get it done!

Joni's Ghost Hunting Bag

Do you remember when I posted this quilt?
Xmas Stitches

Well I decided to enter it into a quilt competition at Quilting Gallery. Please vote for mine when it’s time for voting!!!
Holiday Traditions Quilt Contest

I’ll be back soon with more DJ blocks!!!

Dear Jane Progress

I’ve made some more progress on my Dear Jane blocks – I’m up to 26 blocks completed! Cutting and piecing such small blocks is making me be a lot more accurate. I have 9 blocks in row A completed, I’m debating putting them together with the sashing. Another 52 blocks and I’ll have the first 6 rows completed! I’m not sure why I waited for a year to start working on this quilt. I think it’s just thinking of all the blocks that need to be completed. I can’t wait to get the whole thing finished and take it to the guild meeting for show and tell. I’m thinking about sending an email to the shop where I’m getting the BOM from to ask them to send me 2 a month. Since I’m on such a roll, I don’t want to be waiting for more fabric to arrive!

I also can’t believe that I’m thinking about fabrics for another one. I’ve seen some very pretty rainbow ones that I’d love to do using Moda Marbles, now that would be a nice looking quilt if you find the right background (maybe there’s a white or cream Moda Marble?).

Something interesting happened yesterday, I was shopping at Joann’s and was trying to get past a couple of ladies looking at patterns. They were commenting on how hard it looked. I couldn’t help myself and asked “Can you sew a straight seam? If so, you can do this.” One of the ladies walked away to look at something else, but Janice stayed to talk to me for a few minutes. She asked if I taught classes. So I gave her my phone number and told her to call me after the holidays. I might just have something else to do during the days now!

Gotta run, time to get ready to meet the in-laws for drinks!

B-1: Applique
B-1: Applique
E-2: Pieced & Applique
E-2: Pieced & Applique
F-3: Pieced
F-3: Pieced
F-4: Pieced
F-4: Pieced

More Dear Jane Blocks

Yeah I know, I haven’t posted this much in a long time – but I’ve really been excited about working on this quilt – so much so that I’ve started to neglect projects I need to finish for Xmas. I have quite a few applique blocks prepped, so I’m going to see if I can start working on some presents today. Tonight is the guild meeting, so I’ll have to take a break for the meeting. I’m getting much better at the applique – I was trying to use freezer paper, but it wasn’t working well. I’ve been getting better at the needle turn applique – see what you think below 🙂

A-9: Paper Pieced
A-9: Paper Pieced
B-7: Applique
B-7: Applique
E-3: Pieced
E-3: Pieced

DJ Update Time!

Well, I prepped 4 applique blocks on Saturday and managed to finish all 4 of them yesterday while watching movies with my hubby. I’m not 100% happy with the applique, but I can always redo them later if I want. Off to go work on more blocks!

A-3: Applique
A-3: Applique
A-7: Pieced & Applique
A-7: Pieced & Applique
C-9: Applique
C-9: Applique
E-10: Pieced & Applique
E-10: Pieced & Applique

Yet Another DJ Update

I’ve continued to make some progress on my Dear Jane blocks – up to 15 blocks and 272 pieces! I received the 3 packs from the shop as replacements for what I was short on, so I’ve been working on some of those blocks today. I’m also prepping applique blocks so I can work on them tomorrow while we watch movies. At this rate, it shouldn’t take me too long to finish the quilt! 🙂 Yeah right!

A-2: Pieced
A-2: Pieced
A-4: Pieced
A-4: Pieced
A-5: Pieced
A-5: Pieced
F-7: Pieced
F-7: Pieced

Oh Dear Jane….

I’ve been busy the last few days….I’m now up to 11 blocks completed! I have heard from the shop where I get my BOM and they are going to send me the first 3 packs again – hopefully I’ll get it soon – I can’t work on anymore of row A without it! I’m really enjoying working on these. I’ve noticed that on some of the blocks the piecing is perfect – which if you know me, you’d know I just don’t do! I’m known for making blocks fit together at the end 🙂 Off to decide the next block!

D-7: Pieced
D-7: Pieced
D-6: Pieced
D-6: Pieced
E-9: Pieced
E-9: Pieced

Another Dear Jane Update!

I’ve completed another couple of blocks – I started them yesterday though!  I’m not too thrilled with the first applique one (D-3), I did needle-turn applique and boy am I not good at it!  The next applique block  will be done differently, maybe it will turn out better.  I can always redo them if I have to!

C-1: Pieced
C-1: Pieced
C-3: Pieced
C-3: Pieced
D-3: Applique - doesn't look perfect, but it's done :)
D-3: Applique - doesn't look perfect, but it's done 🙂

Dear Jane Update

Well, I’ve completed 2 more blocks so far today, and I’m getting another ready for applique. I’m not very good at it, we’ll see how it comes out! I’m not happy that the fabric I have been getting isn’t enough for some of the blocks. I’ve written an email to the shop I’m getting the BOM from each month, we’ll see what they want to do about fixing the problem. I have 3 packets (blocks A1-B5) that I just don’t have enough fabric to do some of the blocks. There’s no way I can do the applique ones, the block is supposed to be 5″ and by the time I get done doing the applique it would be shrunk too much to fit with the other blocks! Here’s the blocks I completed so far today!

Dear Jane Quilt

I have FINALLY started my Dear Jane quilt! I’ve been getting the fabric monthly since the beginning of the year – and just haven’t felt like working on it. Partly because I’m not sure they are sending enough fabric – or I just haven’t figured out the right way to cut it out yet! So I’m going to find all the easy blocks and do those first, then I’ll start working on the harder ones. Most people seem to be hand piecing them. I don’t have the patience for that – I’ll do mine by machine – at least as many as I can. There is a link to the right to see my progress – I found this template on the Dear Jane site, it will show each of my blocks in it’s correct position as I get them done. It also shows at the top of the page how many blocks, triangles, kites (the corners) and total number of pieces. There are 169 squares, 52 triangles, 4 kites and 5,602 pieces in this quilt. We’ll see how long it takes! 🙂 Here’s the 3 I have finished so far!