Bright Jane Blocks

A few blocks I made at the JT2 Retreat in Shipshewana this past week. It's good to know that I have not forgotten how to do foundation piecing, but should not try to do seven in one day because that is too hard on my arthritic hands.

G-13

K-12

L-7

L-3

L-8

B-4

M-2

That's all for this month
blessings,
Chris

Shipshewana Quilt Retreat

I am packing my bags and project boxes for the Quilt retreat in Shipshewana Indiana later this month. I have about 15 Bright Jane blocks to take along. I will be focusing on foundation piecing. The most blocks I ever did in one day is 5 at a retreat several years ago. They were all foundation pieced and some of the harder blocks, since I did all the easy ones first. Why do I do that?
I have had a busy few months with family and travel and even completed a couple of quilts.
Blessings,
Chris

Applique Blocks

I was learning to use Karen K Buckley`s perfect circles for my 1857
sampler quilt and made few for here as well. I machine appliqued them using a white cotton thread. 

B-1 Bachelor Buttons

 I used a wash away fusable for the tear drops. Above you can see the background fabric through the white, but below you cannot.

C-9  Jane`s Tears

 
I used the fusable for the leaves but not the circles.

F-13  Tour de France

 I was at the Just Takes 2 retreat in Shipshewana back in November and Brenda Papadakis, Dear Jane herself, showed me what I was doing wrong with the back basting technique. I was not using a fat needle to do the basting. With a fat needle, I am using a tapestry 8, the holes in the background fabric become the stitching guidelines. I have used this technique a lot since then and love it. However, it is not so easy to make all sides exactly the same. Hmm. Need more practice.

G-3  Four Leaf Clover

Blessings,
Chris

Choosing Colours

The next bunch of blocks will all have a square-in-a-square theme and be foundation pieced. 

That is . . . when I get to them.

Blessings,

Chris

On the Design Wall

It is hard to believe that it has been a whole year since I did any work on this quilt. So much for good intentions. Life has been very busy this past year with family, studies, travel and quilting.

These are the 25 blocks that I have made so far. Three are not complete. This leaves me with exactly 200 more to go. I could plan to do 10 per month or 1 per week or 1 per day. But I have decided to start with one. I am using bright colours and each fabric will be used 2-3 times. With my luck, I would end up with the same colour and same design side by each as one of my granddaughters says.

I have gotten somewhat obsessed with hand as well as machine applique the past 3 years and started no less than 10 big quilts with several others on the wait list. I have completely completed 2 of these quilts and trying to complete a few more. You can read about that on my other blog Quilting at the Farm.

So my plan here is to make 1 block then  make another. If all goes well, I will eventually make 198 more and finish this. It is the brightest thing I am working on right now and find it refreshing.

blessings,
Chris