When I started making Dear Jane blocks in 1996 I started at the beginning and was making blocks in order. But, I apparently skipped a few. Probably because they look difficult. Today I decided to go back and do those blocks.
And, yes, this one was a difficult block. Making it involved applique, curved seams and Y-seams.
I made another Dear Jane block today. It was similar to yesterday's drunkard's path block, but with another degree of difficulty. This one I had to talk over with my husband, because I wasn't sure that I was thinking about it the right way. And we decided I was trying to take short cuts that wouldn't work. So I ended up making eight little partial drunkard's paths and trimming them to the right size. And look! it came out great. I am pleased I haven't lost those 'perfect piecing - making the points match' kind of patchwork. It's a different way of concentrating and thinking.
I made another Dear Jane block today. This one went a little quicker. I made the drunkard's path blocks oversized and then overlaid the template, lining it up with the curve and trimmed the two sides. I sewed those four little blocks together and then trimmed the whole block to size - 5" which includes the seam allowances. Easy peasy.
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Yesterday I had pulled out my Dear Jane box, which contains the book and fabrics I collected to make the quilt with, to show some friends who were unaware of Dear Jane Quilts.
When I went up to the studio this morning the box was still at my work station. So instead of doing what I probably should be doing, I made a few more blocks. The first one took a couple hours, maybe. The second one took the rest of the day, almost four hours.
It took me a minute to get back into the "making perfect seam allowances" mode. And I turned down the speed of my machine, so I couldn't get ahead of myself by sewing too fast. That helped. I really had to pay attention.
I finished putting together the Little Owl. I used some of Grandma Jennie's buttons for the eyes.
It's done and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. For now, it will sit up on the top shelf and watch over things.
I bought Ann Wood's pattern for her Little Owls. I started making the medium-sized one today. I'm using some wool I bought at Carriage Country Quilts the other day. I put some crushed walnut shell in the bottom to give it stability and then stuffed the rest with wool. It still needs some embroidery and some eyes!
I've been thinking about how I want to quilt Spider Legs. I keep coming back to quilting it on the diagonal. Which means loading it onto the longarm on the diagonal. I've watched a few how-to videos on YouTube.
I think I might do it. So, now I'm wondering how I want to quilt it. I printed out a photocopy of the quilt and started drawing lines on it.
Since it's called Spider Legs, I thought about putting hairy spikey things on the legs. So, one of the legs on the photo has straight spikes the other has curved spikes. I'm leaning towards the curvy ones. And then there's what to quilt in the black legs.
What do you think? Any ideas or suggestions? I'm open for input.
