DEAR JANE REPORT FOR MARCH

I finished Row J of my Dear Jane quilt plus 2 triangles.  So, I am on track for finishing the inner blocks by the end of June.  Woo Hoo!!

Most of these blocks were pretty easy and then came J-10 with 16 appliqué leaf shapes.  Last week I watched a free program from "The Quilt Show" and in it Kim Diehl was demonstrating her method of machine appliqué.  I kept looking at the 16 leaf shapes to appliqué and I decided to machine sew them with invisible thread (like Kim does).  I figured that if she can do it, so can I.  I hope I won't be arrested by the quilt police, but all that hand needlework is hard on my hand.  

Here's J-10 in all it's machine appliqué glory!  Actually, this is the second time I did machine appliqué on a block, but the other one was only 4 tiny triangles.  Actually, paper piecing wasn't done in 1863 either, so I guess I guess it doesn't hurt to use modern techniques on appliqué.  As someone told me before, if Jane could have, she probably would have done it too!

J-10 Machine Applique

 I think J-13 is my favorite block from this row.  I really like how it looks and I love the black fabric.  My photos aren't the best because my sewing room isn't really very light even during the day.

J-13

Onward to Row K for April.  Actually, I already have the fabrics picked out and most of the blocks are paper piecing.  I'm actually getting to like PPing!!

UFO FINISHED!

I am so happy to have this UFO finished!  This was my travel project when I retired in 2009 and I started it in December on our first trip after I retired when we traveled by car to Florida.  I had my new (to me) Featherweight along and worked on these blocks in the motel at night.  The name of it is "Scrappity Do Dah" and it was a free pattern that came in a quilting magazine promotion.  It measures 88" x 98" to be a generous queen size.  

Scrappily Do Dah

Here are some close ups of different areas of the quilt so you can see some of the fabrics and the quilting.

Backing fabric has tiny buttons on it.

Another UFO is almost finished.  I started this one a few years ago when Barristers Block had a sew-a-long.  I didn't finish it then, but this year she had another SAL, so I got it out and now I'm quilting it.  It's a Bullseye quilt with raw edges that will fray after I wash it, which I will do after I'm done quilting and binding it.  I'm about half way finished with the quilting.  First I stitched in the ditches and now I'm quilting around the circle (bulls eye) and adding a leaf shape in the corners.  I think that will be enough quilting.  I might quilt feathers in the border.

I'm almost finished with this table runner that I'm making for my Etsy shop.  I just need to sew the binding to the back.  

I bought the backing fabric a toile with birds on it while on a shop hop a few weeks ago in Grandma's Quilt Shop located in Dallas, Oregon.  It's a small town about 20 miles from where I live now.

A week ago I got lucky at an estate sale where there was literally tons of fabric, quilt kits, cross stitch kits and yarn for sale.  I purchased a bunch of fabric for $1/yard as well as kits that I am listing in my Etsy shop.  I'm still not finished listing items from this sale.

Happy quilting!

ISSUES AND TAXES

I'll get the frustrations out of the way first.  I've had issues with my IMac for several months and have talked to Apple support quite a few times.  They have reconfigured my computer, but not everything was fixed and I kept putting off calling them again because it always takes forever.  Well, yesterday I finally forced myself to call them and it looks like things are just about fixed.  It wasn't that I couldn't use the computer, but one of my most important genealogy files was missing (its found now!) and some photos are still missing.  So tomorrow one of the senior agents is going to call me back and hopefully get that fixed.

The other frustration was just getting all my income tax stuff put together and that is almost finished, so I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  Yea!

Here's the civil war Westering Women's block from Barbara Brackman's Civil war blog for February. It was a very easy block.  I'm planning to make all the blocks red, white and blue.

I found this doll bed at an antique shop and couldn't resist it.  DH is going to fix it up and either refinish or paint it.  I came across the green stripe at a quilt show vendor's booth and thought it would be perfect to cover the mattress.  I plan to make a quilt for it and a pillow and will sell it, hopefully, next December.

Now that my "issues" are almost resolved, I think I'll work on my Dear Jane blocks for March!

Spring is almost here!

RETREAT ON THE COAST

Last Friday I went on a retreat with my church to Lincoln City, Oregon on the Pacific Coast.  On the way there, we stopped for lunch at the Otis Cafe, in Otis, OR.  It's a tiny "hole in the wall" place that has become quite famous for their delicious and generous meals.  We stuffed ourselves with yummy food and continued on to the retreat.

Saturday turned out to be a pretty nice day and we were able to get out to walk on the beach for a little while.  The ocean waves are so amazing to me - a girl who grew up in the mid-west.  During our song fest times we could look out the window at the ocean and the words of one of the songs we sang were very meaningful:

Filled with wonder,

Awestruck wonder,

At the mention of Your Name.

Jesus, Your Name is power.

Clothed in rainbows of living color,

Flashes of lightning,

Rolls of thunder.

Me on the beach

This is the house I stayed in and there was another one just like it, plus a small house.  I think there were 60 women all together, some coming just for Saturday.  We live about an hour from the coast.

I've been busy since I came home.  One thing I've been doing is making a cape for my grandson, who is in 2nd grade.  He needs to dress up like the Pronoun super hero.  My part is to make the orange cape.  It's almost finished, so I can get it in the mail later today.  They didn't have any "fun" methods to teach grammar when I was in school.  Here's the link to the grammar site if you are interested.

Thanks for visiting my blog!  Have a great weekend.