C-8 Hani's Crown

 

C-8 Hani's Crown

 

I can't believe the last Dear Jane I made was in June 2011.

Boy does time fly.

some new blocks

At last I can show you three more blocks.

Blocks A12, J1,J11

I hope to show you more very soon!

Jane's Addicted at 20%... ish.

This is what 20% looks like. I got so I had to see how my layout design was shaping up before I went any further. 

I'm arranging mine in a 'Trip Around the World' but with the blocks reorganized by motif. 

1) center crossroads (green - 1)

2) stars (yellow - 4)

3) misc circles (8)

4) appliqué (red - 12)

5) misc. (violet - 16)

6) misc. (20)

7) diamonds (blue - 24)

I won't get into all the hairy details here but there's also a giant "X" in the works and an homage to the elements. 

Couldn't quite get the whole shot - big quilt! And gee, wouldn't you think I could have ironed that dumb sheet before I tediously inserted about 100 pins?!

Flurry of Back-to-School/Back-to-Jane Activity...

It's on to the purples...

My super slow-mo pace continues... Still having fun though...

Happy Janing

http://janesaddicted.blogspot.com/

Rainbow Jane Flimsy!!!!

You guys!!!  Oh my gosh, how did I forget to post this here?!

I burrowed into my assembly work all last week and got my Rainbow Dear Jane fully assembled Tuesday night!

I put in cornerstones on this one - went through all the colors I'd received for the blocks and found the one of each color that I liked best. Used that one for all the stones in each radiating color band. I think you can get the idea here:

Regarding earlier thoughts of quilting this in large sections, then joining them - SCRATCH THAT IDEA~!  There are far too many precision points in small measure to match up to ever get it to line up perfectly after quilting. You'd have waves that will never block out completely, or mismatched lines. Besides the whole challenge of the serious thicknesses that fight with the foot as you're sewing.

As you're assembling your Babies, you'll find that tiny 1/2" sashing places many thick, thick seam-allowance stretches that ride so close to the foot that it's often difficult to keep the edges perfectly lined up. I found pinning like this to be super helpful, because on most blocks, that top Baby likes to slide away from the foot with a strong pull:

I thought about putting on the zipper foot to see if that helped, but the sashing is so narrow that you need a really perfect 1/4" seam. I can't get that without using this particular foot.

GO SLOW. And it also helped to provide support/tension from 3 angles: front and side with my left hand, from the back with my right hand reaching through the machine's throat (absent here to do camera duty):

I have other things that require attention, and after the intensity of assembling her, I do need a Jane break. But I can't wait to give her some more attention next month!!  I plan on marking the scallops and the quilting I want in the blue cones, then I can pin-baste her. I think I will just SID the inside babies, quilt the background cones/scallops, and bind her. I do want quilting in the individual squares, but I'll leave that for "The Second Stage" at some further point in time. Maybe then I'll have an easier machine to heft a VERY HEAVY 85" quilt through.  :)   Because this flimsy is one heavy sucker!!!  

I can't hang it in my Quilting Needed Closet - 

It'll just fall off the hanger. So it sits on top of my treasured quilts armoir stack.

No fears of forgetting her quilting, though! After two years of working on her, she's a very good friend, indeed.

P.S. -  Men. . .  ::shaking my head::  Mr. Caulkins: "This is what it would look like if a quilt farted:"

My Jane Quilt on Exhibit

Here is my finished Modern Jane quilt. I taught a Dear Jane club and made this - working along side my students. The quilt was constructed using a mix of batiks and modern prints.
I was incredibly humbled and honored that Brenda Papadakis asked me to submit this quilt as part of the Celebration of Jane Stickle Exhibit. The (150th anniversary)exhibit took place at the Vermont Quilt Festival the end of June.

Above is a picture of Brenda giving a lecture by my quilt at the exhibit.

The experience and women I've met on this journey have been so wonderful. I am so grateful to Brenda for her years of dedication in preserving this great American Treasure!

I'm still working on my Civil war and 1930's Jane quilts. I will be starting up another Dear Jane club this fall so I'm hopeful to have these 2 Jane quilts completed by the end of next year.

Jane's Cushions.

Finally I have managed to find a couple of zippers in the colours I wanted to make the first round of DJ blocks I made, into a couple of cushions.

It  was harder finding the zippers that what it was to make the cushions. The fronts hung for a months on my coat hanger on the wall, in my sewing room. Eventually found the zippers in a quilting shop.

This cushion I gave to my daughter-in-law as like me Tamara is a cushion freak.

This cushion I have kept for myself.

WAHOOO!!!!!

You guys!!!  Guess what!!?

I just finished all my blocks!! All inner Babies, all triangles, all kites!!  I just want to dance all over the neighborhood.  ;D

Here's what I did with the signature kite. Used "Time of Change" instead of "War Time" to fit our situation, and finished the piece count in my spreadsheet for how I'm assembling it all (I'm doing cornerstones with the sashing) so I could fill that in while I had that floss out. 

And something to note about that sig kite:

When you print out the kite pattern, the star is closer to the flower (as you see below) than it is in the book. I'm fine with it , but it got squishy putting in the words, so I thought I'd pass that along.

2 Kites

I just posted two kites on my blog. One is not yet done. Both were started about a year ago. I must be the slowest Janiac on the planet! You can read more about them  here and here . . . but I'll warn you that tonight, even the blog postings are incomplete. I'm just trying to get the photos posted before the Dear Jane gathering at the Vermont Quilt Festival. The festival is all weekend. The special event is this Sunday at 11 AM. The festival also features 30 Dear Jane quilts in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Jane Stickle's quilt. Scroll down to see some info I pasted in here re: the exhibit....followed by details about the Sunday event.

Celebrating Jane Stickle

MILLER NORTH

Thirty quilts made "In the manner of Jane A. Stickle" will celebrate the 150th anniversary of her 1863 Civil War sampler. The quilts are assembled by Brenda Papadakis, author of Dear Jane, The Two Hundred Twenty-five Patterns from the Jane A. Stickle Quilt. 

   

                         Dear Jane: detail by Chris White

Each quilt varies in color and design and reflects the maker's interpretation of Jane's quilt. You will be inspired to make your own after visiting this exhibit.

Curator: Brenda Papdakis, San Antonio, TX 

Jane's 150th Anniversary Reunion

SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 11AM
BLUE RIBBON PAVILION

Bring your Dear Jane or Dear Hannah quilts, blocks, notebooks and pictures to this special event with Brenda Papadakis. She will share some of her quilts and stories; in turn, share yours and how you came to Jane. Learn what's happening in the World of Janiacs. Free admission

TOP COMPLETED!!!!

I have finally finished the last stitch on my Liberty Blue Baby Jane!!!! Here she is......

Blogged about here: 

http://juliannenearlyinsane.blogspot.com.au

Mind you - the journey is only half way - I plan to hand quilt it!!!

Must be mad!!

Cheers!

Julianne

XX

You may have seen this,

but if not, go to Dear Jane's 150th Anniversary in Nantes, France post.  Wonderful photos of DJs. Thank you, Paula for a fabulous post!

and also http://countrythreads.blogspot.com/2013/05/dear-jane-exhibition-and-talk-nantes.html
Wow!

My Progress

I haven't been around here in a while so I figured I'd check in and show you all how far I've gotten.  I am 2 blocks away from finishing Row F.   I think about how scared I was to start my Journey and how horrible the first few blocks were, but now that I am this far, I am really addicted to working on this quilt.  It's pretty much all I work on now.  I am determined I am going to finish this by the end of this year if it's the last thing I do!  I don't want my Journey to take 15 years!  I just started in March I believe, I have done the math and I figured if I finish one row a week I could probably do it.  Here is a picture of my progress so far.  I use a virtual design wall to keep track of my blocks.

See you after I get more done!
Beth

My finished Dear Jane Quilt top

Here is a picture of my finished MODERN Jane quilt top.
I sent it off to the Longarm studio. Here is a picture of my quilt with Valerie. (she is studying the quilt for design ideas)

Here is a close up of one corner...I hope you can see the scallops I drew in the borders. (you may have to click on the picture to enlarge it)

It feels wonderful to have this accomplishment behind me. I'm still working on my Civil War and 1930's versions of this quilt, hopeful to have those completed within a year.

Triangles, triangles........

I haven't posted on here for a while, so thought I'd pop by and let you know my progress.

I have completed all the top row triangles and joined them together, so this week decided to get a move on with the right hand side. Here is my progress.

Some of these were easy, but a couple caused a bit of torture!!! When I finally finished wrestling with the one with the circle (RS-3), I realised I had put the colours around the wrong way. Secret - I am definitely NOT going to repeat it!!! I also discovered I dislike set in seams intensely (RS-6).

RS 1-6

More Rainbow Blocks

I may just succeed at catching up to finish in August. The back-log is down to 30 after this week's 7, and my progress chart just looks so COOL to me.  ;D   It's been a long haul. Well worth it. I'm so glad I started on this journey.  Have you worked on a Jane this week?

I-13

J-11

J-12

K-1

K-3

L-3

LS-13

Last week's final wave of little Janes.

Here are the blocks I finished up last week. In addition to these I also completed LS8 triangle "Northern Lights".

Here is what my progress looked like by the time I was done:

Pretty good progress for me - I was very happy.
But wait there's MORE...I spent the entire weekend on Jane as well. I'll have the grand reveal for you all in just a couple of days!

Wishing you all a Happy & Productive week!

exhausted but happy....

The blocks I caught up last week

Oops - I forgot to enter my blocks last week. It was a good week, too. Lots of Jane babies have been lurking in my hand-stitch tote, and it's very relaxing to work on those in the evening. 12 blocks in the week! Most of those came from the hand-stitching, but a few off the machine. That pace is not happening this week, though.  ;D

So, the set:

And the individuals:

G-10

G-11

G-13

H-9

H-10

H-12

I-9

I-10

I-12

J-9

J-13

RS-12