Dear Jane Blocks.

I have been making these small blocks. They are addictive. I started with row a and then jumped to row m, incapable of following a linear path. I have been posting them on instagram but I decided to add them here as well because I have not been able to let go of this blog. Not sure why. Maybe because it was my first. 

oops, not a dj block.
 but a concurrent project. My aim is to use up my stash.  

Salix genus and blocks

Some blocks and some pussy willows from our back yard.
Movement was severely restricted since I wrenched my back sometime last week at work. By yesterday morning I could not move my torso without screechng pain, so I spent most of the day on the couch, catching up on phone calls and email. By dinner I was able to move around and sit at the sewing machine so I hemmed some pants for Jen. I also made a couple of diamonds for the Diamond of the week initiative, (on the DJRetreats yahoo list), from Quilted Diamonds, by Linda Franz.
The heart block is for my personal swap. It is the Hannah's hearts Dear Jane block and is six inches.The originals are much smaller-4.5 inches. The diamonds are enlarged from the 4 by 7 inch size in the book, to 8.75 by 5 inches. I am finding the larger sizes much more fun and relaxing to piece.
I use the cds from each author and Electric Quilt software to increase the size, The program has many many more tools but mainly I use it to re size my locks and figure out settings. These increments of an inch or so may not seem like much but it is a huge difference in these tiny blocks, some of which are made with dozens of of pieces.
Through internet groups like Dear Jane, and Yahoo groups like DJretreats and Wiproducers I have l grown my passion for quilting and have gotten support and friendship and even love from the people who I have met there.

Day two

Day two of morning pages. Done.
Pictures of frozen garden, DJ block for Caroline and #42 1948 singer sewing machine cabinet. Love this cabinet. I got this from an ebay reseller in Levittown for 51 dollars. Love the drawers. Love the ink well in the top drawer. Love the stool that opens up like a piano bench. Love the spool holder in the column of drawers and the column of drawers. Can you tell that I love it? There is a #15 singer inside, sleeping. Needs a few parts and some work, but for now she is dreaming of days gone by.

Hour a Day-sort of

I am pretty much caught up with my Hour a Day Quilt challenge from Judy L.'s site. I have been using a slightly different sized triangle left over from an old project so there is alot more trimming and fidgeting to get them together. The centers are from a nickel swap and the other parts are left over from Jen and Jay's wedding quilt. Everything was pre cut so I am retro fitting it all into her pattern. No doubt there will be some unsewing, to realign some points. Not quite as easy as cutting it all to fit, if that makes sense. But I decided that if I was going to do this I was not going to buy anything for it and so far it is working out. I am working for the next few days so I guess I will catch up again this weekend.
I am thinking of immersing my Dear Jane assemblage into a tan dye bath to help give it some color cohesion. I am so not liking the peachy backround color. But I am afraid of ruining the whole thing. I have never done such a drastic thing before. At least not to a quilt. Any thoughts? Should I be brave? Will I be remorseful in the morning?

Many Janes One Jane

Don't know what to call this Jane. It is a compilation of a few false starts. CW repros, Dutch repros, brights. I was looking through my Bags o Blocks to see if there were any to share with a friend and it suddenly occured to me that I should just sew them together already because the weren't doing me any good in a bin. Whether they were matchy matchy or not. And so I did.
There are 81 blocks, mostly from the Dear Jane book, and several designed by Tilde, whose blogs are in my links. There were some that I did not use. In truth I ran out of design wall space and some just were not lovable at all. So I used some batik that I had bought online to use as an applique backround and did not love enough to use, nor dislike enough to fling --- and I am quite happy to have done this top, to be done with the assembly and ready to think about borders and quilting, if, and, etcetera.
And so I have joined the current DJ swap-in thirties repros, because I have made a vacancy to fill with a new project. Kind of:)So that is what I was up to today. Finishing stitching and printing out blocks for the next swap!
One of these days I have to find my Name and Claim list and see if I am actually working on any of the things that I thought I would be. Well yes I am -my sampler and my journal quilts, and now Judy's challenge and a swap. Not so bad. And one top done.