QUILTING DIAGONALLY

 I started the actually quilting on Spider Legs which I have mounted diagonally on the longarm.  It's going well.  I'm using the ruler exclusively to make straight lines in the 'background with a light teal thread, and zig-zaggy lines with black thread in the black and white 'leg' parts.

I only worked on it for a few hours, then I went back to work on the Dear Jane blocks.  I wanted to get my third and fourth one for the week done.

This is B12 and B13, which finishes off the second row.  This makes 26 blocks I've made, only 143 left to do.

B12 was all curves

B13 was an easy one to complete the week's 4.

FRIDAY FINALLY

 I finally got the backing for Spider Legs pinned onto the longarm.  I've been procrastinating about it for what seems like a very long time.  It barely fits onto the longarm because I added fabric to all the sides so the backing would be diagonal when I quilt it.  

I also loaded the batting and the top and even wound one bobbin.  Then I joined the Brave Patch Finish It Friday group.  

I was able to get the next Dear Jane block, B11, finished before I had to go in to make dinner.

BLACKBERRY JAM

 Wednesday Darrell and I went blackberry picking in a local 'park'. Jelly went too, but wasn't too happy.  She doesn't like blackberries and really doesn't like trying to walk in them.  So she stayed away and watched us.

Today I cooked them up, using a very low sugar recipe, into Blackberry jam and canned 12 little half pints and one pint.  That should last us for a few weeks!  

TINY PIECES

 I made the next Dear Jane block today, B10.

It has tiny pieces.

The middle part

2-1/4" square at this point

Getting bigger...

All done, 4-1/2" block.

CANNING PEARS

 We got a big box of Bartlett pears yesterday at the West Seattle Farmers Market.  With Darrell peeling and me cutting in half and coring, we made a good team.  He could peel them as fast as I did the rest.  We didn't make it through all of the pears, but I think we got at least half of the 24 lbs prepared.  We couldn't help but sample one - it was very delicious.

I hot packed them in quart jars and ended up with 6 quarts.

CANNING FRUITS

 Darrell and I went to the West Seattle Farmers Market and bought a box of peaches and a 24 lb box of pears.

We came home and canned the peaches right away.  We were disappointed with them.  Once they were peeled you could see a lot of bruises and soft spots - which all had to be cut away.  I think we were probably a bit too late in the season.  Hopefully, we'll remember this next summer.

But, we got four quarts put up.  

DEAR JANE B8 AND B9

 I've made two more Dear Jane blocks.  And again, they were challenging.

The center four pieces were fussy-cut and sewn together, then the corners were added with a Y-seam.

I added the appliqued leaves later.

This block was also fussy-cut and entailed Y-seams.

DEAR JANE B6 and 7

Working on row B of the Dear Jane quilt.   Today I got B6 and B7 done.  I doubt that I could have completed B7 with its curves and inset circle back in 1996.  But, luckily I have the skills to do that now.  But, this little block was still very difficult for me.  

I took B7 into the house with me to finish the appliqued little diamonds in the corners.   

I thought I would foundation piece B6, but that wasn't going to work, so then I thought I'd make the center square and foundation piece the rest, but that wasn't how I did it afterall. 

Making the parts for the center square.

I thought I'd foundation piece the rest of the block, but in the end, it seemed easier to just piece it.

Completed B6, 4-1/2" block

Then it was on to B7:

Sewing the little 'melons' on the center circle piece.  Can't have enough pins.

Once I got the center circle completed, I inset it into the outer square using the 6-Minute Inset Circle technique.  I think the original was probably made with four individually pieced sides and mitered corners, but I thought this new way would be better, and faster.

Completed B7

THREE MORE DEAR JANE BLOCKS

 I made three more Dear Jane blocks today.  So, I did get my four made for the week.  Just barely.

DEAR JANE A-11

 I had apparently passed this block by because it was difficult.  I made it today and it was very difficult.  Almost all of the seams were partial seams, which isn't easy with 1/2" pieces.

But, I got it made, even if it isn't the prettiest thing I've ever made.  This is block A-11, Penny's Protest.

FINISHING THE CUCUMBER CHIPS

 This morning I got the empty pint jars into the water canner to heat them up.  

I drained the brine the chips soaked in overnight, retaining it and heating it back up to a boil.

When everything was ready I packed the chips into the jars and poured the brine over them and put them into the water canner.  When they were all packed and ready to go, I set the canner to processing.  

Here is the finished product: beautiful and delicious, too.  And the whole process smelled sooo good.

CUCUMBER CHIPS!

 I love Cucumber Chips and we are having a lot of cucumbers from our garden this year.  So, I made some.

I made a double batch. The Ball recipe makes 4 pints, and I wanted more.

There are a lot of steps to making Cucumber Chips.

First there's picking the cukes and scrubbing them clean.  And then they are sliced using this fancy, wavy cutter.

They are then covered in salt and left for at least three hours.  This pulls a lot of liquid from them.  

The liquid is poured off and then they are rinsed. Next step is to soak them in a mixture of vinegar, water and turmeric.  This changes their color into a beautiful yellow green.

That liquid is poured off and then they are left to soak overnight in a spiced, sugary, hot brine.

THREE BEAN SALAD MIX

 I made and canned some Three Bean Salad mix today.

Darrell picked the green beans from our garden.  We bought some yellow wax beans at the West Seattle Farmers Market yesterday.  I got the rest of the ingredients this morning when we did our weekly grocery shopping.

First I chopped all of the vegetables: green beans, yellow wax beans, onion, red pepper and celery.

I boiled all of them together for a few minutes to partially cook them. 

I made the brine and got the water canner going and then when the jars were warm I began packing everything into them, included some canned beans, because I couldn't find the Lima beans the recipe calls for.

Into the water bath they went.

Here's the finished product: beautiful!

There was a bit leftover, not enough to fill another pint, so I had it for lunch - delicious!  

 

MORE JUNK JOURNALS

 I made two more Junk Journals.  I used another cracker box and a cookie box for the covers, covered them in fabric and reinforced the spines.  I used a simple pamphlet stitch for sewing in the signatures. 

The inside papers are an assortment of all different things.  I even went into my flat files and pulled out some very old sketches and paintings and cut them up to make pages.

I think this e bond fabric was meant to be a book cover.

I made the fabric on this cover with the Deconstructing Screen Printing method (it's been in my stash for years). The beads are some handmade beads from Sue's collection.

FINISHED JUNK JOURNAL

 I organized the Junk Journal signatures from yesterday and punched the binding holes in the spine of the cover I made.  (I love how this fabric looks on the cover - it always amazes me how much some fabrics look better than I thought when you cut them up).  Then using an awl, punched the holes into the four signatures.

I sewed the signatures into the cover with a simple pamphlet stitch and added some beads (some of which I inherited from my sister Sue) on the outside.

JUNK JOURNALING

 I watched a free workshop put on by Creative Bug with Jennifer Perkins and how she makes Junk Journals.  She made it fun and easy.

Today I made the cover from a cardboard cracker box.  I glued some fabric onto the front, reinforced the spine and put it under some weight to dry.  Then I started gathering paper for the signatures.  I had gelli prints, papers from the recycle bins, card stock, old watercolor papers, some with paintings, paper bags and stuff.  

I cut them to size and made four signatures and quit for the night.

JANE BLOCK FOR THE DAY

 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.  

DEAR JANE AGAIN

 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.

ANOTHER DEAR JANE BLOCK

 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.

DEAR JANE BLOCKS

 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.

FINISHED LITTLE OWL

 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.

DEAR JANE UFO

 I got out my box with the Dear Jane book and the fabrics I had collected to make the blocks with.

I haven't worked on it since 1996 - that's an old UFO!

But, I was surprised to find I had only done 9 blocks in 1996.  If I had just done a couple of blocks a year I'd be done by now.  Here's where my project stands today.

LITTLE OWL

 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!

CONTEMPLATING QUILTING

 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.