| Dear Jane at guild show |
[Sep. 18th, 2009|10:53 pm] |
This is a pic of the only DJ quilt at the San Antonio Quilting Guild show today. Thought you guys would like to see it.
 |
|
|
| Admin Stuff |
[Apr. 2nd, 2009|11:31 am] |
Hi everyone,
Long time, no DJ! I hope to correct that soon. We just moved and my sewing stuff is still all packed away. I can't believe my goal for the year was to do one DJ block a week. I've done one all year!
Anyway, I am sure some of you have noticed that the spammers have found us. I finally figured out how to set it up so that new members have to get approval first. I hope you don't mind, Sonnet!
New members, by all means join and have fun. The moderation is simply a spam fighting measure. |
|
|
| Dear Baby Jane |
[Jan. 20th, 2009|07:23 pm] |
Anyone know what's going on with Dear Baby Jane? I saw that she pulled down all her tutorials and has this posted...
"TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2009
URGENT CALL!
If you're still following along, PLEASE send me an e-mail at dbabyjane (at) gmail (dot) com."
I sent her an e-mail but haven't heard back... I really hope she doesn't have to take it down - it was so helpful! |
|
|
| dear Jane |
[Jan. 15th, 2009|09:52 pm] |
I just got my Dear jane software installed and it does not work right. When I click the desktop icon, I get 2 error messages before it open and the the first icon to click says "content cannot be displayed".
Has anyone else had this problem? |
|
|
| M13, Lynette's Diamond + Tutorial |
[Jan. 3rd, 2009|09:14 am] |
Date Completed: January 1, 2009
Number of Pieces: 12
Description: hand applique/machine pieced
Color Group: purple
Number of blocks completed: 61
Number of pieces so far: 1060+ 139 sashing
Interesting current event: It's New Years Day so the world isn't turning so fast today. In personal news, I just found out my sister broke her leg. I want to go to Oregon to help her, but really can't leave b/c of things that need to be done to settle on our new house.
One of my New Year's Resolutions is to complete each Block of the Week through the Dear Jane mailing list. This was the first one!
It didn't turn out perfect, but it was very quick and easy. I'm happy enough with the results.
Tutorial behind the cut.
( Read more... ) |
|
|
| A7, Dad's Plaids |
[Dec. 31st, 2008|10:26 pm] |
Date Completed: December 30, 2008
Number of Pieces: 8
Description: hand reverse applique/machine pieced
Color Group: purple
Number of blocks completed: 60
Number of pieces so far: 1048+ 137 sashing
Interesting current event: The governor of Illinois is in embroiled in a scandal. He was trying to sell Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder. In more personal news, we have a contract on a townhouse! We're almost homeowners!
I've had this block ready to go for months, but I was very unhappy with my less than stellar placement so ignored it. I suppose I could have just redone it, but I hate redoing things even though it probably would have taken 20 minutes. Honestly, in person it is not very noticeable and it will really not be noticeable in the finished quilt.
My quilting New Years Resolution is to do the BOW through the official Dear Jane mailing list each week. That will get me through the blocks I've been putting off and maybe this quilt will be done in my life time!
This week's block is M-13, Lynette's Diamond. I'm going to make it using the tip at the official Dear Jane site, but I have no idea if it will really work. I'm not a spacial based person so the idea doesn't make any sense to me, but sounds pretty easy to execute:
"Done a totally radical way-it works! Applique a 5" circle of focus fabric onto a 5-1/2" background fabric square. Sew 1-1/4" (focus fabric) square onto the four background corners using a diagonal line (as you do for quick corners and flying geese). Trim the under side of the focus fabric. Cut the large square into quarters. Turn them around and sew the quarters back together as per the M13 picture and you have a perfect Lynette's diamond!"
|
|
|
| C9 - Jane's Tears |
[Dec. 1st, 2008|08:29 am] |
Block: C9 - Jane's Tears
Started Quilt: 07/02/08
Block Completed: 11/30/08
Number of Pieces: 5
Description: Reverse applique by hand
Blocks: 20
Triangles: 3
Kites: 0
Total Pieces: 239
I've had this block half done and sitting around in my sewing room for weeks now. I was working on it and the thread knotted up and snapped. I needed to just pull out a few stitches - delicately - and tie it off. It's amazing how that tiny little set back made me abandon this block for so long. I finally got a chance to work on again last night after finding my seam ripper which was the only thing I could find small enough to pull up the stitch work. Anyway it's done now! I think it came out very nice besides how long it took! |
|
|
| E13, Moth in a Web |
[Nov. 28th, 2008|10:42 pm] |
Date Completed: November 28, 2008
Number of Pieces: 26
Description: paper pieced
Color Group: turquoise
Number of blocks completed: 59
Number of pieces so far: 1040+ 134 sashing
Interesting current event: A Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death during a Black Friday stampede. What is this world coming to?
It's been a while since I worked on DJ, but I decided to jump back in with a mixed applique/paper pieced block. I had the paper piecing patterns printed out, but wasn't sure what type of applique it required. When I looked at the pattern again I realized that there was no way in hell I was going to applique those tiny little triangles. Instead, I made my own paper piecing pattern for the four corners by extending the line of the triangles. Easy-peasy. I don't know why the DJ software has such a hard time coming up with paper piecing for little sections like that.
I was really happy with the block until I looked at the picture. I knew I had cut off a couple of my points, but it really looks wonky here! Once it is in the quilt no one will ever notice so I'm not going to try to re-do anything. I'm just happy I did this all with paper piecing instead of trying to applique all those itty-bitty points. |
|
|
| A3, Hunter's Moon |
[Oct. 3rd, 2008|10:15 pm] |
Date Completed: October 1, 2008
Number of Pieces: 3
Description: machine hand applique
Color Group: turquoise
Number of blocks completed: 58
Number of pieces so far: 1014+ 132 sashing
Interesting current event: Wall Street is failing and needs a $700 trillion bailout or the next Great Depression will start. I'm already depressed thinking about it.
I kind of got stuck with this one and it sat on the side table for a couple of weeks before I did the hard part. First, I appliqued a black circle onto the background fabric. That was super easy. Then I had to figure out how to cut things so I could reverse applique the middle blue section. I really hate doing melons, so this made sense at the time but in reality it didn't work so well. As you can see, there is still glue all over this block because I'm afraid to soak the glue out. Will the edges be totally frayed because I didn't have enough seam allowance? I don't know!
This looks ok now, but has the potential of a do-over if I soak out the glue and find that the lack of seam allowances in the corners created a big problem. |
|
|
| G5, Poof |
[Sep. 14th, 2008|09:14 pm] |
Date Completed: September 7, 2008
Number of Pieces: 8
Description: machine paper pieced/ hand applique
Color Group: yellow
Number of blocks completed: 57
Number of pieces so far: 1011+ 129 sashing
Interesting current event: Hurricane Ike is hammering Texas and causing flooding through out the Midwest.
This was actually a very easy block. I printed out two copies of the block, then used a ruler to continue the black lines so I could create my own paper pieced pattern. The hardest part was remembering to add the seam allowances. Yikes!
After I paper pieced the background, I was able to easily applique on the poof. I didn't get it on there quite as straighta s I would have liked, but I don't think ti is too noticable. I don't like the way the yellow looks when I scan it in (it looks dirty), but it looks great in person. |
|
|
