The Real Thing: A6 - Uncle Homer

Okay... so I re-did my A6 block on February 18th. It was even easier the second time around!

I washed up some more fabric tonight but that was it for Dear Jane. I did make up a label for a baby quilt so at least I had my machine on today. I can't say that every day! Lucas (my son) actually went to bed early tonight as he didn't have a nap today for Dadoo (his name for Dad). Michael (my husband) went to a local hockey game tonight. That meant I had time for dishes, cleaning the bathroom, folding laundry, some sewing, and the computer. Wow - amazing what I can get done when I have an evening to myself!

C10 - Patriot's Lattern

Next I wanted to try a harder block - but still something I could do with rotary cutting/machine piecing. For some reason I picked C10 - Patriout's Lantern. For various reasons it took me quite a while with this block but I finished it Feb. 17th. I think it looks better "in real life" than it does in this scan.

I did have some trouble with my iron leaving marks on this one so I cleaned my iron (twice) and finally figured out that maybe I had my iron too hot. Either way, my iron is now shiny clean. We'll see if I get marks on any other blocks.

I've been spending time with my Dear Jane software and computer lately. I've printed out some of Brenda's lessons and some patterns. I'm thinking about trying foundation piecing next... or machine applique. Hhhmm... Decisions, Decisions!

First Block

I'm a little slow to get the blog up and going... I started with the quilting!

I made my first Dear Jane block on January 20/09. My initial plan was to sew a few blocks to make sure I enjoyed making the blocks and that I was I happy with my fabric/design idea. I admit I was nervous about making a big initial investment in background fabric. After much thinking and consulting I've decided I'm going to use a variety of white-on-whites for my backgrounds and batiks for my focus fabric. I'm planning to have lots of blues and greens and purples and pinks. Hopefully it'll look okay in the end. I'm thinking about sashing it in a navy blue batik but I'll decide that later... much later!

So... this is a picture of my practice block (A6 - Uncle Homer). With my decision to use a variety of white-on-whites I could have used this block but I'd put it together in a hurry and I thought that I could do better. I know that finished is better than perfect but I admit that I re-did this block. But that's for another post...