TWO MORE BLOCKS B1 and C9 BATCHELORS BUTTONS AND JANES TEARS

Applique

We were going away for the Easter weekend and as we were staying with my Dad and Sister in Law and Partner I decided it would be inappropriate to take my sewing machine on holidays! (If they hadn't been joinging us I would have :-))

So with this in mind I decided to have a go at some needle turn applique.  I have recently looked through  my daughter's completed DJ blocks and thought if she can do it I can do it.  I spent the week prior watching as many video's as I could on Needle turn applique to learn how it was done.  Off to spotlight the day before we left for some silk thread and some applique needles.  Then I printed off the template patterns for four blocks that required applique and found some materials cut out some five and a half inch squares and packed it all in a nice ring binder with front cover and all ready to do.

The first one was Batchelors Buttons and I was very happy with the result.  I would say its definately not perfect but in pretty OK and seeing as its a small block in the whole quilt I think it will pass.

This one I used freezer paper to cut out circles with a 1/4" seam ran a row of stitching around the edge the pulled the circle in around the paper pressed them and then pulled out the paper.  This gave me a good solid circle shape to applique on.

 

 

B1 Bachelors Buttons

 

The second block was Jane's tears which was a little harder as I used needle turn applique method on this one.  I have never done this before so it took a while to get the hang of it but I am happy with the finished product.  As I said before in the overall big project it will look OK.



C9 Janes Tears

A1 Pin Wheel Gone Arry FIRST BLOCK

My First Dear Jane Block

Because I like to be organised I have to start at the top of the square on block A1 I just couldn't start anywhere else.  So I printed a Foundation Paper Piecing pattern for block A1 and found some green fabric and calico and started.

Along the way I made quite a few mistakes and had to unpick.  One section I actually threw in the bin and reprinted another pattern and started again.

The finished product was good and I am very happy with it.  I have decided that I definately need a Add a Quarter Ruler and I have purchased some foundation paper piecing paper.  Although for my first one I just used ordinary computer paper and it was fine.  It will be interesting to see if the correct paper makes a difference.

Here is it !!!

 A1 - Pin Wheel Gone Arry

FOUNDATION PAPER PIECING

I discovered foundation paper piecing while researching dear jane and started to think about makeing some blocks with this method.

My friend and I are in the process of a block of the month quilt where the tutorial was given using half square triangle paper.  We loved this method and found a program to print our own half square triangle paper.  

I then moved on to watch and learn more about Foundation paper piecing so that I could use it to make my Dear jane blocks.

This is a great way to make very acurate blocks and half square triangles.

IN THE BEGGINING

In the Beggining

Quilting is something I have taken up in later life basically because I was bored and needed a hobby of some kind.  My best friend also decided to join me in this hobby so we started off with a Block of the Month and absolutely no idea what we were doing.  The internet is one of the best places to learn something new and thats where we got most of our information reading and watching you tubes.

I came across these post and websites about Dear Jane,  often referred to as That Quilt and as I did more research and reading I thought, this is something I would like to tackle.  I am not kidding myself into thinking that it will be done in record time because I have lots of other things I want to do, but maybe an ongoing project that I can pick up whenever I feel like making a block.

So firstly I bought the book, then quickly realised that I really needed the computer program.  I continued reading and learning more about this project. We were off on a trip in our caravan to Melbourne so I decided I would have a go at hand piecing a block during our travels.  I laboriously traced off a couple of patterns and found some fabric and packed it all with my small cutting board and needles and thread etc.  I managed to complete one block which looked quite ok, but I was still undecided on the background fabric

At a later date my daught gave me a copy of the CD. I installed it on my computer and promptly forgot about it, although not completely it was still in the back of my mind.  We were going into the silly season and we get so busy there is no time to do anything except socialise but once it was over I again started to think about Dear Jane.  I read lots of posts and was having difficulty deciding what fabric to use for the background.  I didn't want to lay out hundreds of dollars on fabric and put it in the cupboard for the next ten years.  I came accross a post by a young woman who was wanting to make a dear jane but had limited funds.  What she had written made me stop and think. Jane would have used what ever was available like many others of her time such of old clothing and whatever fabric she could find during war time. So why not use what was readily available, with this in mind  I decided Calico was going to be my background fabric.  Its easily obtained anywhere and the price is right. The rest of the fabrics will be what ever I have in my small stash and any interesting pieces I find when I am shopping for fabrics.

I plan to stick to the colours of the original but not necessarily the same fabrics.