Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Latest Blocks and the first blocks of the second Jane

Ok, so it took me almost a month to get these scanned and added to the blog, but believe me, I've been busy! I did one extra block for mum's quilt (the first in two years!) and 3 new blocks for my second Jane "Shadow Play". Bear with me while I remember which block was the new one for mum's quilt... (I'm looking through the pile... they're in number order now so I'll have to go back through the archives and find out what's missing from the blog. There may be more than just the new one missing!)

Ok so there were two missing. The one mum did and the one I did recently. Now I have to remember how I scanned these blocks and got them added to the blog...

Ok so they added in backwards order, but oh well!

Firstly, I'll have to introduce my second Jane (because I loved these little blocks too much to only make them once!) When my boyfriend helped me pick out all of the fabrics, he'd managed to pick out all of the fabrics from the same range 'Shadow Play' by Maywood Studios. Even though I bought the entire bolt of backing fabric, I was still short by about 8 meters, so I changed my design to have an alternate sashing fabric, but I was still short by 5 meters. So I did a bit of research and found that there was a supplier of Maywood studios fabric in Melbourne (a 45 minute drive away!) that was totally worth it as they had my backing fabric in stock! Not only that, they'll order more in if I need it. So my second Jane is made from 5 colours as contrasts (pink, purple, blue, green and yellow) with a very nice burgundy as sashing. Below are the purple, pink and yellow fabrics- green and blue are still to come. I included a purple and blue purposefully as they are the colours I'm using in mum's quilt. By the way, I've hit 31 blocks for mum's quilt now! When the two quilts equal each other, I'll have 40 blocks for each of them done.



This was the third block made for my second Jane "Shadow Play". I had intentionally wanted to foundation piece this block, but for some reason it didn't work. I think my seams were too big. In the end, I resorted to piecing. A while ago mum and I bought a foundation piecing lesson DVD that I'm going to do today so that I can master this because I think that I'm fluking foundation piecing. At least Dan's been great in helping me by cutting the paper pieces out and pulling the paper off the blocks. Though he yelled at me yesterday for starting too many quilts and not finishing any... I'm going to finish one today, I swear! This block was finished on Boxing Day, at night, while I sewed at the machine and Dan ironed them flat for me.



This block was fun. The second 'Shadow Play' block, I was determined to foundation piece, and I managed to. I'm so happy because the last time I attempted this block (pieced, for mum's quilt) the points in the center didn't match up. I did learn a few things- cut your threads after sewing, not after the whole block is done, or your block looks like thread spaghetti, and lining up correctly is key to completion! I think this block is slightly smaller than it should be, but that's ok because at least it's done. :)



My first DJ block for my second DJ quilt- Shadow Play. I picked this block as the first because it was a very easy foundation pieced block, but my gosh I still screwed it up! I didn't line up my triangles correctly so I buggered it up a bit there. But it's ok because it's still the right size and it's still wonderful.



This was my first quilt block for mum's quilt made in two years. Yes, two whole years. I put the quilt down while I dealt with other things (like graduating uni, etc) and one day a month or so ago I pulled out all the little blocks and spread them all out in front of me and got inspired all over again. My boyfriend came over while I was sitting there with all the blocks around me and I said, half to him and half to the blocks, "I miss working on these blocks..." and he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Why don't you keep making them, then?" And so I did. Patriot's lantern was a difficult little one, only because of all the tiny pieces (I can tell that will be a common complaint of mine with this quilt) but it still came out complete and at a good size, so I'm leaving it as is.



This is the one that I cannot claim I did myself. That's right, mum did this block. When she found out about the quilt she demanded that I let her help. I had already cut out Jane's Tears and she likes applique so I gave her this to do. I think she did a wonderful job and I'm glad that she was able to contribute to the quilt.

Piece and progress counts:

Mum's Jane: 31/0/0/588
Shadow Play: 3/0/0/25

5 comments:

Granna Judy said...

Hi Fee -- Glad to see you are back! I missed you. I'll hope to get back to mine soon too.

Judy

Vicki ♥ said...

Wow...lovely sewing!! your blocks look great and I might add I have just started sewing up my DJ blocks. I have done 9 so far and only just started them. I look forward to reading your blog further but at the moment I am a bit short on time. Cheers and happy sewing....maybe one day we can see each others blocks in real life as I live in Melbourne also :)

Granna Judy said...

Hi again, Fee -- DELIGHTED to hear you are going back to school and going to be a teacher!! It's a wonderful life -- yay for you!

Judy

Melanie said...

Your blocks are beautiful! Nicely done and how fun that mom is joining in!

Melanie
crazyaboutquilts.blogspot.com

Kathy said...

HI

Please do an update, I would love to find out if you finished the Dear Jane.