Dragonfly Happenings

Mon 4th May, 2009

Only little bits of progress this week. Fairly busy week. Dad & Helen arrived on Friday night, football on Saturday night, Daniel and Janette's engagement party on Sunday! Busy!

I couldn't get exactly the same fabric for the Churn dash block centres but got some that is close. Finished off those blocks except for circles in centre. Will do them later in month before next class. Bought some more fabric for Spencer's bottle quilt. I went to the Stitches & Craft show hoping to get some fabric there, but hardly any stall holders - very disappointing. I did buy a mini-iron though & Michele Hill's William Morris Applique book. My order of M250 Vilene for the circle centres came in too.

Have begun sewing bottles together - but today really need to get moving on it. Only have 4 days to complete it - fly to Sydney on Friday morning. I can sew binding when I get to Sydney - but have to have the whole thing sewn & quilted before then! Public holiday today so should get a bit done. Dad left here about 2 hours or so ago, Greg is working at work, so have whole day to myself.

Sunday 17th May, 2009

A busy two weeks! Finished Spencer's quilt at 2.30am on the Thursday night, up at 4.30am to catch a 6am flight!!! Struggled with Sydney traffic on the Friday - picked up Jaimie from Central, had breakfast at Coogee beach, back to his place, picked up Spencer from childcare and then off to Dee Why beach to catch-up with Shwei. Then rush back to Jaimie's place, picking up a bottle of 21 year old port on the way, got changed and then hit the traffic again to go into Darling Harbour to meet up for a harbour cruise for Julian Pollard's 21st birthday! WOW! Slept well that night :-)

Saturday spent shopping with Jaimie for Spencer's birthday - bought him a lovely set of trains from Thomas wood set, a little singlet top and a shopping bag - all Thomas the Tank Engine theme. Went to visit Georgie in the afternoon and ended up going back there for dinner & stayed the night. He made me breakfast in bed on Mother's day morning! How nice it was.. Off to pick up the Spalding-Polsons at 10am to go to take them to Tash's parents for Spencer's party. A lovely afternoon, weather good, a bbq, happy birthday presents, lots of Thomas... - they loved the quilt, photos to follow. Left there at 4pm to get to airport for 6pm flight, back to Brissie, to bed...

This week have worked on finishing off the Churn Dash blocks for the first week of the Oriental free block. I love this circle technique, they look great. Went to 2nd class yesterday - Oriental Lanterns - a good technique, very simple. Bought some more fabric so that I can make enough blocks for a queen size quilt.

Have been working steadily on the B6 Wild Goose Chase blocks - have learnt heaps about making sure that the angles all line up. Have done lots of unsewing & re-sewing!! I will have to redo at least 2 of the blocks, maybe 3 - but I will know what to look for from the beginning next time. I might have to redo my Jane quilt same block - now that I know what created the twist. I'm not sure whether to unsew & resew or just start again. A fair bit of unsewing required - but I do like that fabric.

Will begin the 2nd block tonight. Probably the next one on list F8 - Church Window. Am over this B6 block for now & think it is better if I do something different for a while. I think I chose the hardest one to start with - didn't know it at the time, at least I learnt what to watch for when doing future blocks! Angles Angles Angles!!!

Have been thinking about renaming my Jane to "Jane is a Bright Girl" - will think on it.

Sunday 24th May, 2009 12.59am

I have now completed 6 blocks of my Baby Jane.

I have also completed 2 of my blocks for the Spring Fling swap - although I think I will have to redo a fair number of them :-( Foundation piecing is not as easy as it might seem - I think a lot of people see it as cheating, but it has its own challenges and learning curves.

F8 I think was easier than B6 - but still was quite challenging & most of the blocks are not quite 5". My angles are good but I think it only takes a smidge on each join for the whole thing to be a bit off the correct finished size. One thing I started doing towards the end of construction of the F8 block was to baste 2 parts together with a 4.5 size stitch & then check & resew - I think this gave a lot more accuracy & will do this whenever there are a lot of joins.

I started the block G4, Shutterbug tonight (Sat). It is a lot easier, more like a log cabin type foundation piecing. I didn't have enough of the fabric I started with - just a 4" square of Kaffe Fassett wine lotus print - but I added in a mauve/grey lotus print & it looks fine. The finished printed block is only 4 1/2", tricky - have to remember t add on at least another 1/2" for a 5" finish! Not sure if this is correct or whether because I printed 2 to a page it made them smaller. Anway - I know to add on more so will be ok. Quite a good & easy block. I should finish the 6 for the swap tomorrow & can then start on the next. Have to keep moving with them to get them to the US on time.

Sunday 31st May, 2009 7.32pm

Have now completed all of the Shutterbug blocks and almost completed G9, Mary's Journey. I enjoyed doing the Shutterbug (G4). It was one paper - no joins, so worked out correct size. Mary's Journey is not as easy. My Black & Batik block ended up being a 1/4" smaller than it should have been!! This type of sewing is VERY precise. I am very happy with the centres of the swap blocks. Just have to add the outsides accurately and they will be good. I have learnt a lot about precision piecing!

Went to the Textile Crafts Show for a couple of hours on Friday. Many beautiful quilts and other fabric/textile art, including Jenny Bowker's quilts made of the Egyptian artisans - beautiful! Met Dianne Cevaal too - would have loved to have done her fabric printing course, but too expensive at $199.

Named on Saturday 6th September 2008: Spring Jane

The plan is to use Kaffe Fassett and other similarly bright, bold or "spring-like" fabrics with a black background.

Machine & hand-pieced.

Probably machine quilted

Progress will be reported.

Sunday 8th March, 2009

Bought Dear Jane CD to allow printing of patterns.

Designed in programme using Kaffe, batik & bright fabric swatches.

Sunday 15th March, 2009

Started printing up patterns.

Friday 3rd April, 2009

Made Block A1 & A2 decided to use black tone-on-tones or black batiks as backgrounds. They don't have to be the same - just as long as they are similar. The bindings and borders will be a different black.

A1: most of the points are good, just one that I'm not happy with. I can always redo this one.

A2: have discovered that making it the "Jane-way" means making it bigger and then cutting it to size. I can see the benefit of this - but I don't like the waste. I will probably make them smaller, with less waste. Also realised that the block tips do not include tips for all parts of the block, nor instructions to make the block. Looks like I will have to pay more attention to the block construction after all. Printed up instructions for making Flying geese the easy way.

Sat 4th Apr, 2009

No sewing today. Rearranged sewing space. Quite happy with what I accomplished. More to do tomorrow. Still contemplating whether to start again and do all by hand or just muddle along doing some by hand and some by machine. Certainly there are some difficult blocks & applique blocks that will have to be done by had. Will read tips & see what others have done. On the DJ list there is a Spring Swap being organised from now to June. Blocks in 30's reproductions & muslin. Could be good. Have to read through all the instructions to see if I could fit it in.

Tues 21st Apr, 2009

Have completed 4 blocks now: A1, A2, A3 & B6. Hunters Moon I did by hand with templates. This was HARD - I have noticed that a lot of people use a plain square base & then applique the melons on top - or even more of a cheater, they cut this plain square on both diagonals, resew & then applique the melons - so it looks the same with the side seams, but much easier then sewing the curves.

Have joined the Spring Fling swap and are doing these 6 blocks: B6, F8, G4, G9, I13 and M8. I had a look at some of the photos of other peoples blocks - the quilters muslin background looks quite different to what my quilters muslin looks like - much whiter. Will have to go to the shop & take a look at theirs.

Also started going to Free Block classes at Sewco & have signed up to get kits for the free blocks. They will be making a lovely oriental style quilt with the free blocks every month & I thought Daniel would like it. Daniel & JJ are having an engagement party on the first weekend in May.

Thurs 23rd Apr, 2009

My Uncle Bob died yesterday afternoon after being ill for a while. Sad news.

I went to Sewco on Tuesday morning and bought 2m of quilters muslin - it is definitely different to what I thought, much whiter & lighter. I also bought some bobbin-fill to use when I sew the circles in the free block quilt.

Sat 25th Apr, 2009 ANZAC DAY

Finished preparing fabric for block swaps & cut out all the papers for the first block I'm doing, B6 - Wild Goose Chase.

I also completed the basic Churn dash block for my free block class - just have to attach the circle - awaiting the vilene M250? To stick it on with. Also cut out & sewed all the half square triangles and rectangles for the free block quilt that I will make for Daniel. Unfortunately I read the instructions incorrectly & made blocks that were 2" instead of 2.5" - I thought finished size was the size of the block I was making, not the piece of the block! Doh! Oh well, had enough fabric & pieces to redo the ones that I got wrong, but I have lots of half square triangle blocks at 2" now to do something with :-) I have to buy more background fabric to make the block centres too. Shops are closed today for ANZAC Day so will have to get it tomorrow. Today I will cut out blocks for a bottle quilt for Spencer's birthday, maybe even begin sewing.

Sun 26th Apr, 2009

Walked down to Sewco & back through reserve. It took a long time but was not as difficult up & down the hills as I thought it might be. They were closed for ANZAC Day (I knew this before I went) but I had a good window shop in all the shops. I am walking back there today to pick up the extra stuff I need.

Sewed all I could of the churn dash blocks, cut out most of the blocks for the Bugs in Bottles for Spencer and began the B6 blocks - did all the centres. Very happy with what I accomplished yesterday. I set up my ipod the other day in the old computer speakers so that I can plug in & play straight from my ipod. I updated everything yesterday - it is gas!