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.

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.  

NEXT BORDER

 I got the next border on and the corners, too.  Woohoo!

WELL THAT WORKED

 I was pleasantly surprised to see this all work out and have it go together relatively easy.  There was a lot of pins and I couldn't have done it without the glue stick.

FLOATING STAIRS TOP

 I worked on my project from the Floating Stairs workshop most of the day and got it all put together.  I made some serious mistakes where the seams don't line up like they should.  But, I think for a first time it's not too bad.   The important thing is that I learned a lot about how to do it and what not to do.  I definitely need more practice at curves and y-seams.

I got all of the background attached to the 'drunkards path' squares, then we went out to lunch at Coastline Burgers.  Well, actually, we ordered online, picked it up and took our lunch to the lookout at Hamilton Viewpoint Park off California Avenue.

I got one seam where everything came together right.  Yea!

Back in the studio after lunch, I attended a Brave Patch meeting where I foundation pieced a lot of the scraps from this project while listening.  Afterwards I sewed everything together on the top.  It's done.  

The background is Kona Prussian Blue, the orange is Kona Nectarine.  The dark purple is Kona Geranium and the lighter one is Kona Petal.

BLACK FRIDAY SEWING DAY

 Not much happening on this Black Friday.  

I was sewing.  I worked on my Floating Stairs project from the workshop I took last weekend.

First I finished paper piecing the 'stairs'.

Then I worked on getting the background pieced into the middle - not as easy as she made it look! It's all one piece. I had to go back to the recording of the workshop and look for the part where she did this.  I took out my first attempt and tried it again with better results.  Not perfect, but better. 

I got the background sewn into all of the 'stair' parts, then started making the 'drunkard's path' squares.  Or should I say rectangles.

STORAGE UNIT

Another block - made from a photo I took in Greenville, SC at the Lorraine Machine Shop.  Darrell wanted to stop there to meet the owner, Jerry.  Darrell has been a distributor of his multi-routers for years now.  

That's a multi-router there on the table behind Darrell.  Instead of interpreting the photo, I choose to do just a portion.  Behind them is that storage bin.  I drew just a corner of it.  

All straight lines with a few y-seams.  But, it had a lot of little pieces.  

Fun.

MORE BLOCKS DONE

I'm still putting together some of the Carolinas blocks.

I had already cut out the pieces and had them on the wall.  Since I've decided I'm happy with them, I'm sewing them together.  I'm not sure if this is procrastinating making the next few or what.

The Tower block.

Fashioned after a Tower at Biltmore in Asheville NC

I was really excited to sew this next on together.  It has curves and ends up being a circle.  Very cool.  I'm glad I left it unfinished for a while, because I ended up changing the color of the melon.  It looks better now.

Porcupined melon.

Very slow and careful stitching.

The finished melon part.

The Dome block

The inner dome at the capital building in Columbia SC.

The next block is a close-up one of the lamps outside the main  entrance to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC.  I love how all of the points came together and the y-seams worked!  That doesn't always happen for me.

A close-up - look at those points!

The Lamp block.

The actual lamp.

The main entrance to Biltmore, with the lamps on the sides.

Then it was the Stairs block. 

The Stairs block.

The stairs at the Nathan Russell house in Charleston SC.

And finally, the block that has been bothering me.  Here it is after I changed alot of the colors.

I'm hesitant to say what this one is fashioned after, but what the heck.  It's the back end of the harness and Rowdy's tail.  

Come on Mom!  No more sewing - let's go to the park!

CAESARS HEAD BLOCK

I finished the Caesars Head block this morning.

But, that was pretty much it.  I started on the next block, but had to go.  We had lots to do today.