Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Is it February Already????


I can't believe how quickly time is passing! It's already February...I feel like it was just the 4th of July!

Baseball for my 7 year old, William, is starting up again. Last year he played for the Giants, this year his team is the Toronto Blue Jays. I'm posting a photo from last year...this years' will post as soon as the uniforms come in! Isn't he a doll? He loves baseball, and this year he has the good fortune of having his daddy as his coach!! We're all excited for the season to begin. You know where I'll be on Saturdays from March thru May!

I finished some more squares for my Jane Stickle quilt...I'll post some more photos later in the week. I am also working on a One Block Wonder quilt using a beautiful black and cream Asian print. Photos to come, I promise!

All for now...love to hear from all of you!

Monday, January 25, 2010

A Small Miletone...at 10% (roughly...)


I finished blocks I3, H7, D3, E2 and RS6 this weekend. RS6 was the most challenging, with inset seams. Somehow I made it through...thankfully, thatquilt.blogspot.com is an incredibly helpful blog with great tips on some of the more challenging parts. As well, quiltingboard.com has some wonderful tutorials on doing inset seams and y-seams....all of which are extremely helpful on this journey with Jane Stickle!

I have completed 24 blocks, so I'm just about to hit 1/10 of the quilt. Imagine...and I've put hours into it! I can just imagine that Jane must have put several hours into each block...designing, choosing her fabric, making the block itself. I wonder if she drew it out first so she could choose her colorway? I have this mental image that she started with the center block, then made the blocks that surround it, and went from there. Sorta like a medallion quilt, only with teeny, tiny blocks and pieces.

Surprise surprise, I hate the way I3 turned out. That's the block with the dots on the bottom right. Those dots just look lame. I will wait until I have all the blocks completed before I decide to redo it. It may not bother me so much in the grand scheme of things!

Wishing you all a safe and warm week ahead. Try to stay dry and keep on quilting!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

My Most Recent Blocks


Here are the blocks I wrote about earlier tonight. More are coming this weekend, stay tuned!

Four New Blocks and a Triangle

The Journey with my Modern Jane continues. I am in week 4 of a group effort to make this beautiful quilt. I am posting pictures tonight of my completed blocks, and will also post some shots of how I constructed the triangle, as I found that to be the most challenging of the group. I used a combination of techniques...from Sharon Schamber's "pieclaque" method, as well as good old fashioned freezer paper. I also reviewed the tutorial on "That Quilt" (see thatquilt.blogspot.com) and came up with my plan of attack!! Thank you to all the experts out there helping me with my piecing and applique skills!

The four completed blocks are H4, A7, H3, A9 and LS10. LS10 was the most challenging, so here is the method to my madness. I started with two strips of fabric, the light and the dark. Both were about 3 inches wide, and about 9 inches long.












After cutting those out, I took freezer paper and cut the shape of the brown fabric on the paper. I ironed it to the backside of the brown fabric, then cut out the shape, adding 1/4 inch around the entire rectangle.



My next steps were to iron back the cut-outs, where the cream fabric will go. I snipped each one several times, as close to the seam line as possible. I then ironed them back.

I next removed the freezer paper and put glue around the edges. I then placed the brown fabric on top of the cream fabric and ironed it down to "seal" the glue. I then did an applique blanket stitch around the piece..and voila..there she is.


My last step was to attach the bottom strip to the rest of the triangle, then cut it to size.

I seem to be having trouble uploading my last set of images. I'll do what I can to get them on, but the last step is pretty self-explanatory.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Intro to my Blog


Hey there! This is my first experience blogging and I'm just getting set up. Bear with me ya'll!! I'm a married mother of two children. I'm an attorney during the day, and when I get home, it's all about being Mommy...that and my quilting addiction!! My latest craze is working on a quilt that contains 225 distinct blocks. There are many out there...the original was created during the civil war by a woman named Jane Stickle. My plan is to post as much as possible about what I do, how I got there, and photos of my finished work. I'll post other pics along the way...seeing how my life goes! To the right are 4 of my completed blocks. I am using fabrics that are in the red/coral/brown/turquoise colorway, and also using only "modern" fabrics. That is, no Civil War fabrics or other old fashioned ones. My quilt in progress is called "Modern Jane."