DEAR JANE #D11

The DJ block assignment for this week's BOW is: D11. The TOW is: TR11. Not sure I'll get the triangle finished by Sunday night, but the little block is done. If you are working on a DJ project, you might like to join us on the DJRetreatYahoo group... we give each other encouragement and tips.

DearJane D11 - completed 27Sep2013

It wasn't until AFTER I made this block, that I thought of a much easier way to make it!  A much more efficient use of my time would have been to piece the center and stitch the four "star points" on, then simply prep those edges and applique to a foundation square; add little triangles and done! Live n learn.

Until next time. . .I'm going to start that triangle... what are YOU working on?

Quilty Hugs,

POINTS, POINTS, POINTS...it's all about the prep! DJ TR8 Brigadoon

My DJ triangle for this week's BOW is TR8 Brigadoon.

Lately my points haven't been as nice and pointy as I would like. Then lightening struck last weekend and I changed how I do the prep. The first steps are the same... it's the final one that made the BIG improvement and I have a block to prove it! lol.
* Make FP template & cut out [smooth edges with emery board if necessary... go lightly here!]
* Iron FP to WS of fabric
* Cut out around template adding 3/16 - 1/4 " seam allowance by eye
* Press s.a. over template all around... a smidge of starch is really helpful here! I use spray starch or spray sizing that I spray into the cap and dap on with a small brush.

Diamond on left prepped NEW way; the one on right, the old way

The NEW part:
* Points... carefully fold just the 'ear' of the point back over on itself... please see pic below ... you might have to nip off a few threads. Carefully add one drop of Roxanne's Glue Base-It and press in place. Voila! Perfect point and ready to applique. Remove the FP either before or after appliqueing... both work equally well. I prefer to remove it and then sew.

Left point prepped & right one is not... yet

This looks acceptable to me and is ready to be sewn down

Sewing the point... NO ends to fight or tuck under! Love it.
[don't mind the needle 'parked' off to the side... I needed both hands to take picture.]

Previously I had always needle-turned the final edges of the points which sometimes looked great and other times a bit wonky! See the upper diamond on the triangle below? Now that's one wonky point! Yuck... but I'm not doing it over.

Wonky/wobbly point on top little diamond.. the others are ok

Sewing, quilting, knitting, tatting, crocheting... all of it... it's all about the journey for me. I try to get better as I go; I try to do the best I can today with the skill set that I currently possess. Maybe next week I will be able to do it better but for right now "my best is good enough"!

That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed reading how I prep my points for applique. Thank you so much for dropping by.

Linking to: Kathy at Slow Stitching Sunday.

Quilty Hugs,

DJ BLOCK # D5

TaDah!! Another DJ block completed... yippee! This one is D5.

Dear Jane #D5

Had a bit of fun fussy cutting this fabric. My goal was to get some "curvy" feeling in this very linear block. I love this fabric. The repros are so gorgeous.


I strip pieced the interior 'sashings and cornerstones,' and PP'd the outside triangles with FP printed from the DearJane software [Electric Quilt]. It's not perfect but it is done!

Leaving the FP bits in place on the outside corners helps give stability to this tiny block as it sits and waits to be sewn into the main quilt.  Also, I leave a bit extra on the outside edge... about 1/8 inch ... and trim this right before sewing on the sashing. For me it's all about protecting the edges of these tiny blocks. This is how I pressed it:


 

Managed to get a triangle finished as well, but will share that in another post. Until next time, thank you for popping in to visit. See you soon. . .

Quilty Hugs,

DJ SIGGY FLIES TO SPAIN

One more little siggy signed and it is on its way to Spain!  The siggys are made from the Dear Jane block #D13. Each person embellishes the center square with their own design or artwork.

Pigma Inks, Prym color shading, Kitty stamp

Only about 20 left... when they are gone that will be it for me. No more siggy swapping.  It's been wonderful to share and swap them these past 10 years [about] with people from all over the world, but it's time to move forward and put them all into a quilt! It has been a lot of fun, though.

My crumby blocks are being trimmed and I'm working on more DJ blocks and triangles - I will finish this quilt! lol.  What are YOU working on?

Thank you for stopping by to visit... hope you have a wonderful weekend filled with stitching fun!

Quilty Hugs,

DJ BLOCK G-7: Piecing & Pressing Pics

TaDah! It always feels good to get something done and marked off one's To Do List! G-7 is this week's BOW on the DJRetreat Yahoo Group.

G-7 is the center block in the Dear Jane quilt. Please find below pictures on how I chose to construct it and how I pressed it.

Applique the arcs; PP the set in strips; machine pieced

PPing with FP allows pressing options... love that!

Missy is supervising. ;)

Hope you had a lovely weekend. Thank you for popping in to visit!

Quilty Hugs,

DEAR JANE: making G-7 + A Mini Review of Fusible Product

First off... thank you, THANK YOU to everyone who commented and made suggestions about my crumbie blocks in yesterday's post. I appreciate ALL your thoughts and ideas. Lot's to think about; terrific ideas!  I may have panicked too soon! lol. More on these blocks later...
* * *

It's fun to try out new products. Wash-Away Applique Sheets are offered by C&T Publishing and were inspired by Beth Ferrier's innovative book, "More! Hand Applique by Machine". Today I am using a few bits of it to make part of the Dear Jane G-7 block.

So far: it prints readily in my inkjet printer; cuts easily with both scissors and rotary cutter; fuses quickly to the fabric with no mess or leaks onto my iron!  I'll let you know how the sewing part goes... I plan to sew up this block for tomorrow's DJRetreat Yahoo Group BOW. Fingers crossed. I haven't sewn really tiny stuff in quite awhile...

Meanwhile... thank you for popping in to visit! I hope you are having a stellar weekend with plenty of time to stitch something that makes you or someone you love happy!

Quilty Hugs,

CORNER TIME... DJ TLC & A Great Notion

Yesterday and today was very productive. I worked on the Top Left Corner kite for my Dear Jane quilt. Here she is all completed:

DJ Kite: TLC Sadie Rose - completed Fri, 11/16/2012

There are several ways to complete this block, but I decided to mostly just piece it. I made FP templates by printing the block from the DJ software onto a sheet of FP; cut apart. Press the FP templates onto b/g fabric. Cut 10 squares of focus fabric for the octogons. Lay octogons out into their grid shape 3x3 and piece the edges that touch.

Applique-piecing using LadderStitch - not EPP. No whip stitches!

Press under the remaining edges of octogons and lay on center b/g square.

Piecing the center area of DJ-TLC

 Sew b/g pieces together [catching all the outside edges of the octogons in this seam allowance]. I left the FP on while machine stitching... worked great.

Stitching next to edge of FP template - adding the 'side-wings' to TLC

Applique the pressed-under edges of the octogons to the b/g; and, applique the top octogon onto the topmost point piece. Done. I really enjoyed making this block. It is not hard to do, but is a bit time consuming.

Back of TLC showing construction - FP templates left on to stabilize edges during sewing.

A great notion: My wonderful friend Jill encouraged me to try the "Prep-Tool."  What a fabulous tool it is! Now that I've tried it, I love it! If it hadn't been for Jill, I never would have. Aren't friends great? Thank you, Jill!

PrepTool - perfect scant 1/4" s.a. & corner "nipper"

Notice: Spammers have been working overtime lately. Bummer. It is no longer possible to leave an annonymous comment on this blog. I am so sorry - hopefully this will only be temporary. All "registered and OpenID" commenters will publish. It is so easy to get a FREE Google ID... I hope people will, as comment-love is wonderful to receive. It's one of the ways we interact and share with each other.  The only other choice is to put the "word thingy" back on... I don't want to do that, as I find it difficult and I hear many of you do too. Thank you for understanding.

Until next time. . . I will be spending the day playing with SnowPeople parts. What are YOU going to do?

Quilty Hugs,

MORE JANE: D4 & LS11

Two more DJ blocks completed: block D-4 and triangle LS-11 . No current totals yet. I need to lay out all the blocks and count. It's time to make a chart and hang it in the sewing room. So hopefully I can make one up sometime before Christmas... which is just around the corner! Yipes.

DJ Block: D-4 completed 28 Oct 2012

D4: I PPd this block in 3 horizontal sections, but when connecting the rows, didn't sew all the way to the ends of the background pieces.

D4: PP in 3 horizontal sections using partial seaming

With the paper still on the back, and holding block up to a light source, fold the fabric to align the diagonal seams at the outer edges. A few applique stitches and the seam was secure. Then, applique the melons on. This method gave me the alignment I was going for.

Aligning the diagonal corner seam using a light source

Triangle: PPd this one also. Next time I will plan the seam directions so things are easier to line up. Or better yet, return to using FP-PPing which allows one to flip the seams in any direction. I like that. Look closely at the pic below. Do you see the fussy-cut flower in the tiny melon at the top of the triangle? I won't try that again anytime soon. LOL

DJ Triangle: LS-11, completed 28 Oct 2012

Until next time. . . I'm going to clean house for about an hour and then finish up another DJ triangle & practice some FMQing. What are YOU going to do today?

 

Quilty Hugs,

JANE AGAIN: M-3 & some thoughts on PPing

Poor Jane sat in a box for a few years. Some of her was even in a 3-ring binder. Sew... a couple of weeks ago I began making DJ blocks. In earnest! lol. This week was fairly productive. Completed M-3 on Friday:

DJ Block M-3. Completed Friday, 26 Oct 2012

Liz on the DJRetreats Yahoo group divided the block into quarter-sections so it could be PPd! Just draw a 'plus' sign through the block. Wow, that's brilliant! Thank you, Liz, for the super idea. Sew... I did, too:

Piecing tips: Block has been bisected - note the lines thru the diamonds & center tiny square.

I added "hash marks" to help line up the sections when putting the quadrants back together.

Piecing tips: Center 4 sections are PPd. Note the 2 templates in LowerLeft corner of this pic. That is how the "frame" was sewn on.

Lining up the center seam. Note the 'cut-a-way' in the very center - all seam allowances were graded and this area to be covered by appliqueing the final tiny center square.

Lining up the center square template to double check for size and placement.

This little block certainly isn't perfect, but it is DONE! Finished block picture at top of this post.

Until next time. . . I have two more triangles to finish up. Then I need to rustle up some grub for dinner because World Series Baseball starts in 90 minutes!!! What are YOU doing today???

Quilty Hugs,

DEAR JANE - A Triangle BR-1

Today sees a triange added to my stack of completed DJ blocks. This one is BR-1.

BR-1: Bottom Row #1 DJ Triangle

Before taking any more pictures I plan on creating a triangle template to "lay over" the triangle block. It is my hope that this will produce neater and better pictures. Everything is a learning experience, ya?!

That's all for today. Until next time. . . hope you have loads of time to stitch something that makes you happy!

Quilty Hugs,

Dear Jane... J-4 done!

One more block completed for the DJRetreats BOW [Block Of the Week]... and it's not even midnight yet. Midnight is our deadline.

Dear Jane: Block J-4

Using FP-PPing, I made J-4. The fabric reminds me of some ties my Granddaddy wore in the 1950's. Now that's a while ago.  Even though this is a very simple block, I added two drawn lines to connect the sewn strip to the edge so when putting the two triangles together the seams would line up. I'm trying to knock the cobwebs off my PPing skills in preparation for the really difficult blocks to come.

Two added lines to help with alignment

Pulling threads to straighten edge of Fat 8th... wow was it crooked

Left two small pieces of FP to remind me the s.a. has an extra 1/8"

Because it might take me a while to finish DJ, all the new blocks I'm making have an extra 1/8 inch s.a. on the outside. I want to be able to freshly trim them when putting on the sashing. Does anyone else do this?

I need to make a quick run to the grocery store -- wowzer, but my pantry is B.A.R.E. -- then it will be time to pack up and leave for the Baseball game! Yippee Skippee... golly, but I do love baseball. And, the World Series is just around the corner. Oh boy!

Until next time. . . I will be working on some placemats tomorrow - what will YOU be working on?

Quilty Hugs,

Cyn; -)

F-6 : Ta DONE!

DJ block F-6 is done and it's not even midnight [the deadline]. And the bonus? It's the correct size. Whew! I made the block and then did the applique... no no NO. Should have appliqued the melons on a slightly larger center square, trimmed to size, and then stitched it all together. Well, it's been a long time since I worked on Jane and I've sorta forgotten a lot of stuff.


DJ Block F-6 completed 30 Sep 2012

The melons are a little wonky, but, Hey! it's done. *g*
Until next time... Thank you for popping in for a visit and I hope you had a lovely day that included people you love and some time for stitching!

Quilty Hugs,

MAKING JANE

It's time to get going on Jane again. Today's block is: F-6.  It only took an HOUR to make the tiny sq-in-a-square shown below.

This block needs 4 of these. Why did it take so long? Because I thought I'd pre-cut the bits to speed up the PPing... well, that only works if one cuts the pieces the CORRECT size. lol. Oh well, I have until midnight to get this done. Golly hope it doesn't actually take me that long.

DJ Block F6 - partially pieced, but not trimmed.

 When PPing I sew right next to the line, on the seam-allowance side... how do you do prefer to do it? I like to allow a smidge to offset the take-up when the s.a. is pressed over.

DJ Block F-6 - showing pieces in block

Until next time. . . thank you for popping in to visit... what are YOU making today?

My DJ is really more of a WIP than a UFO, but I am linking to Leah's UFO party. Stop over and see what every is working on.

Quilty Hugs,