Dear Jane Quilt - Block D1 Alison's Guiding Light

Dear Jane Quilt - Block D1 Alison's Guiding Light

I love it when these Dear Jane blocks quietly come together whilst you are stitching, but doing something else at the same time.  I think it is called multi-tasking.  The Formula 1 motor racing season has started and often involves sitting down to watch for a couple of hours during a weekend.  This is ideal stitching time and a good reason to follow the sport.

This is Block D1 Alison's Guiding Light and is the last of the current red fabric draw.  It was stitched whilst watching the Australian GP and the next blocks was started too.

Techniques: English Paper Piecing
Pieces: 23 pieces

Dear Jane Quilt - Block I3 Family Album

Dear Jane Quilt - Block I3 Family Album

Here is Dear Jane Block I3 Family Album.

These last few blocks have been very similar, but that is part of the plan.  BTW THE PLAN started this time last year.  I was still finishing off the Nearly Insane border and removing the papers, but in the background I was devising the design and gathering the fabrics for the current Dear Jane quilt journey.  I am now starting to think about what the next hand piecing project will be.  Any suggestions?

Techniques: English Paper Piecing
Pieces: 21 pieces

International Quilting Weekend 2016

Fabadashery Long Arm Quilting

Happy International Quilting Weekend!

Are you quilting today?  I am busy stitching some customer quilts on my long arm machine whilst watching the episodes of The Quilt Show which are FREE as part of the celebrations.  I have watched nearly six episodes so far and have plenty more to revisit.

Later tonight we are moving onto the next Star Wars film, so plenty of hand stitching to look forward to and the completion of another Dear Jane block.

Have a great day. 

Dear Jane Quilt - Block J2 Picture Perfect

Dear Jane Quilt - Block J2 Picture Perfect

Hello friends. Another day, another Dear Jane block, J2 Picture Perfect.

I have spent some looking back at my Nearly Insane quilt journey and how much I enjoyed it. It was all piecing, no applique, with one 6" block having over 240 pieces.  The Dear Jane blocks have fewer pieces, but offers more of a challenge with new techniques.

Techniques: English Paper Piecing
Pieces: 15 pieces

Dear Jane Quilt - Block L4 St George's Cross

Dear Jane Quilt - Block L4 St George's Cross

This is L4 St George's Cross of the Dear Jane quilt and I have made use of the red stripe in my Kim Diehl stash to fussy cut some of the pieces.  There was a time when I would avoid striped fabrics, but I have seen the light and this particular fabric has already delivered in many ways. 

We are on a red round of blocks at the moment and they are pretty RED heavy.

St George is the patron saint of England and this is officially celebrated on 23rd April each year, which also happens to be the birthday of Shakespeare.  Sadly we don't get a day off to stitch Dear Jane blocks.


Techniques: English Paper Piecing
Pieces: 21 pieces


Dear Jane Quilt - Draw 23 - D1, I3, J2, L4

Dear Jane Quilt - Draw 22 - L2, A1, L10, K10

Another set of Dear Jane blocks completed and we are moving onto Draw 23.  Like my Nearly Insane quilt, the Draw system which I use breaks the Dear Jane journey down into achievable steps.  It works for me on one level but means that I don't have all the pieces to start stitching the whole quilt together until the end.  And that I will have all the papers to take out at the end ...  Will I ever learn?

Draw 23
D1 - Alison's Guiding Light
I3 - Family Album
J2 - Picture Perfect
L4 - St Georges Cross

This Draw is in Red

 

Dear Jane Quilt - Block A1 Pinwheel Gone Awry

Dear Jane Quilt - Block A1 Pinwheel Gone Awry

I would guess that Dear Jane block A1, Pinwheel Gone Awry is the first block that most people make when starting there Dear Jane journey, which means that there are probably more of them in the world compared to M3 Lynette's Diamond, which is the last one.

I made this whilst watching Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace.  Since seeing the latest Star Wars film, we decided that we needed to watch the whole lot again.  It seems incredible how a single film has had such a global impact.  I often refer to the Dear Jane exhibition I saw in Nantes, France in 2013, as being one of the best exhibitions I ever saw.  Up there with it was the Star Wars exhibition from the archives of George Lucas, which I saw at the Barbican, London at about the time Episode 1 was released in 1999.  It had the original artwork and models (pre-CGI) used in the first films and a full size Chewbacca costume - who doesn't love a wookie?

I often use this Personality Test in my work and my personal profile is described as being similar to George Lucas with one of the strengths being 'ability to work on something for a long time'.  They obviously know I am working on my Dear Jane quilt!

Have a go and let me know what profile you are ...

Techniques: English Paper Piecing
Pieces: 28 pieces

Dear Jane Quilt - Block K10 Quandry

Dear Jane Quilt - Block K10 Quandry

This block has a case of the wobbles.  I'm not going to get myself into a Quandry about it.

Techniques: English Paper Piecing
Pieces: 35 pieces

Dear Jane Quilt - Block L10 Nan's Naiad

Dear Jane Quilt - Block L10 Nan's Naiad


As requested, here is Nan's Naiad.  I would say that Block L10 Nan's Naiad is one of the more complex blocks. The shapes are straightforward, but you need to construct the block in a certain order to avoid silly y-seams and stuff.

There are 41 pieces in this block, which for Dear Jane is quite a lot.  I often merge blocks if they are the same colour and they are going to save a seam, which I did a few times with this block, so others may have more.  Don't forget that you need to keep track of the number as the 'original' quilt by Jane Stickle has the total number embroidered on one of the corner blocks.


Suzi the Cat on the Tumbler Quilt Cat Mat

I am trying to think of a reason why this block is pretty.  I don't think it is, so to fulfil a need for 'pretty' on this blog post, here is a picture of Suzi the cat on her new tumbler block cat mat.

Techniques: English Paper Piecing
Pieces: 41 pieces

Dear Jane Quilt - Block L2 Stephanie's Snowflake

Dear Jane Quilt - Block L2 Stephanie's Snowflake

Do you see those little tiny triangles on Block L2, Stephaine's Snowflake?  This is about as small as I like to go.  I didn't put any paper in those triangles, I just manoeuvred the fabric where it needed to be.

I would like to report that we had a few flakes of snow here in Chepstow this week.  No need to get the snow chains out though.

Techniques: English Paper Piecing
Pieces: 37 pieces