Dear Jane: I-13 – Sweet Harmony

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, with the Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies annual Convention taking up much of my time. We had a beautiful quilt competition, with fourteen machine-quilted quilts, and seven quilted by hand. So I had my “quilt” fix, without doing any sewing.

This block was chosen to balance out the green fabric I had used in two other blocks. And it was a return to FPP, since I am enjoying the results best. Today’s photo was not taken exactly “square”, but I can assure you that the block is fairly accurate in dimension and proportion.

Successes:

  • Again, the FPP process worked well. 
  • I was able to get fairly accurate 3/8″ sections, which would have been impossible with traditional piecing.

Challenges:

  • I tried using Carol Doak’s Foundation Paper, and found it more difficult to remove from the tiny seams than theordinary copy paper that I had been using.
  • It is still difficult to keep these tiny blocks square, but I believe much of that will be remedied with the addition of the one-inch sashing, and a good application of the iron!
  • I had been following the plan from the Facebook group: Dear Jane Stitch Along, but am now behind by four blocks. Look for them in future posts!
  • And to top things off, our power supply on our Starlink died last week, so I have been without internet and home network. So I haven’t been able to access my printer to print out my next blocks. I did have one in reserve, and will begin on it shortly. And hopefully the power supply will arrive soon. “We don’t know what we’ve got, ’til it’s gone!”

Here’s the progress of the quilt thus far:

Dear Jane: H-6 – Pie Sale

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

After my poor results from traditional piecing, using templates, I changed my process with this block.

I printed the templates on freezer paper, and then cut the paper with no seam allowance. I pressed the papers to the fabric, and then cut out, leaving a narrow seam allowance.

Using a washable glue stick, and two tiny straight screwdrivers, I folded all interior seams to the paper, glueing them down.

Then I used Invisifil thread to sew all the pieces together, using a tiny whip stitch.

I dropped the block in warm water to loosen/remove the glue, pulled out the papers, and let it air dry. It only took a little work with the iron to return the seam allowances to their “open” position, and produce a block that is nearly perfect in shape.

Successes:

  • Tiny screw drivers are a lot less expensive than the commercially-available Appliquick tools.
  • I left the exterior sides of pieces oversize, to trim down after sewing.
  • By cutting “on grain”, most curves were on the bias, and they were reasonably easy to fold down to glue.

Challenges:

  • The washable glue stick from my craft table is large, so application of glue was rather messy.
  • My Invisifil thread is so “silky” that it keeps pulling out of the needle.

Here’s the quilt to date:

Dear Jane: LS-6 – Susie Q

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

This one took some time. I first thought I needed matching thread, so waited to get to a fabric store to buy some royal blue. Then I decided the my light gray Invisifil would look better, so then I could proceed with the applique.

Successes:

  • The Foundation Paper Piecing worked well, except at the top, where I didn’t leave enought fabric for the seam allowance.
  • I have added a strip of white, that I will remove when I apply the actual sashing at the end. It will keep the edges from deteriorating, and will maintain the size where the edges are on bias.
  • The Invisifil thread is beautiful for the needle-turn applique. I am feeling a little guilty that it’s not “cotton”, but the results are good.

Challenges:

  • I decided to try the fusible interfacing plus glue technique for the one piece of applique. It was much better than the last technique I used (interfacing layered, then turned inside out). Next try will be freezer paper and starch…..

Here’s the quilt’s progress:

Dear Jane: C-1 – Trooper Green’s Badge AND L-3 – Reflections Abound

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

Back to Foundation Paper Piecing for a hit of success! While Trooper Green’s Badge would have worked fine with rotary cut pieces, Reflections Abound would have been a challenge to cut and piece, with such narrow pieces.

Successes:

  • Crisp corners and points.
  • By pre-cutting according to the rotary cutting instructions, I am being very frugal with my fabric.

Challenges:

  • My only challenge I anticipate is that I might find myself left with the most difficult blocks at the end, with the fabrics that I dislike, and so my motivation might suffer.

Quilt Progress:

Dear Jane: C-5 – Eye of the Cyclone

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

This block took me several days to complete. It is the first block that is entirely hand-pieced. I could not figure out another way to manage the curves, in such short runs, so handwork was the solution. I  inadvertently mirrored many of the pieces, and had to cut out more fabric than anticipated to complete the block.

Successes:

  • The block ended up larger than needed, so I was able to trim down slightly.
  • It is done!

Challenges:

  • All the template pieces had be traced on to the back of the fabric. Since the white fabric has no obvious “good side”, it was difficult to keep them all organized, with correct side up.
  • While the centre wedges were easy to fit, the “cyclone” round has asymmetrical pieces,  that were easy to rotate incorrectly.
  • I used Invisifil thread that was difficult to see. And it was slippery, so required a longer tail to keep it in the needle. This allowed knots and twists to develop. And, since it was very fine and smooth, it had no “tooth” in the fabric, so I had to use a back stitch rather than a simple running stitch to ensure that the stitches remained tight.
  • I missed most of the details of the videos I was watching, since I had to concentrate closely, with reading glasses, to do the sewing.

Here’s the quilt so far:

Dear Jane: K-12 – Doris’ Dilemma

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

I’m actually working on a hand-pieced block that is testing my spatial abilities. So I decided to set it aside, and choose a simpler block that I could Foundation Paper Piece.

Successes:

  • This is ONE piece of paper, with triangles added to a central strip. VERY ease to piece.
  • I was able to use the rotary cutting instructions to cut the fabric, then the paper to do the actual sewing.

Challenges:

  • Despite pre-cutting, I seem to be a little short on the border. I will have to be careful when I add sashing to ensure that my blocks finish consistently at 4.5″

Here’s the quilt so far:

Dear Jane: F-6 – Deanie’s Daisies

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

This is Week 6 of the Dear Jane Stitch Along, and this group is continuing to work from the centre of the quilt top out. I was looking for a colour that would work next to the red and yellow, that I hadn’t used before. This purple may be a little light in tone, but I think it will work well as I add more blocks scattered throughout the layout.

Successes:

  • I did actually successfully make the petals in the middle, using light interfacing, sewing the shape, then cutting a slit and turning it inside out.
  • The Invisifil thread works beautifully to attach the applique.

Challenges:

  • I thought I could snowball the corners, but didn’t do the math correctly, and then actually cut off one of my triangles. So I then cut according to the rotary cutting instructions, and was able to sew the triangles on to the centre diamonds.
  • The sew and turn technique for applique is very difficult to do with these tiny pieces. The curved sides worked beautifully, but the sharp end points were lost.

So, for the next applique block, I think I will try cutting the template pieces out of fusible interfacing, and apply them to the back of the fabric. Then I will try using fabric glue to fold down the sides. 

And even though they would have been “fiddly”, I think that the four corner blocks would have been much more precise had I chosen to do Foundation Paper Piecing.

Here’s the updated quilt image:

Dear Jane: H-7 – Bennington Star

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

This is a block that makes you thing “Haven’t I seen this before?” Yes, I have. But I have never made it this small.

Challenges:

  • The stretchy bias edges of the triangles made this a real challenge to match points.

Successes:

  • I noticed that I had cut a piece that had those tiny holes from the selvage. But I was able to deconstruct the piece, cut a new triangle, and set it in before I put together the full block.
  • I like the “log cabin” setting of the four borders: one 4″ strip, two 4.5″ strips, and then one 5″ strip. Had I been thinking ahead, I could have just cut one long strip, and trimmed each as I sewed.

Here’s the quilt progress:

Dear Jane: TR-10 – Precious Gems

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

I can certainly see the ‘gems” in this border block. They sit well on point, on the white background.

Successes:

  • I played the puzzle game well, figuring out the order in which to connect the many pieces of this FPP block. Several were only one piece, but fit together in a similar manner to hand piecing using templates.
  • I finally received my Add-a-quarter-plus ruler. It is 6″ long, and has a tapered edge that is perfect for folding back the paper each time.
  • The light board has really helped placing small pieces.
  • I love the joyous colour, on this snow day!

Challenges:

  • I wish that EQ8 did a layout for FPP that showed which edge of each piece joined to the next. The only clue is the orientation of the letters on the printed paper. So there was a lot of trial-and-error to ensure I sewed the correct seams.
  • I’m now inspired to read the background on these blocks, but The Dear Jane book is VERY expensive on Amazon. The only reasonably-priced second-hand copy is sitting in India, and they won’t ship to Canada.
  • Brenda Manges Papadakis, the author, has copies on her website: http://dearjane.com/shop/, but they won’t ship to Canada either. So I’ve contacted a “snowbird” friend, and asked if she will order it for me,. She could then bring it home in the spring! Fingers crossed!

Here’s what the quilt now looks like with a dozen blocks:

Dear Jane: G-8 – Justin’s Comet

~ Terry Whitmell ~ Leave a comment

Successes:

  • I pressed the star seams “open”, so that I had a clean corner into which I could set the white triangles and squares.
  • I made a conversion chart for all the measurements from 1/16″ to 15/16″, so that I could estimate the cutting size when using my rotary cutter and ruler.
  • I pressed the all the perimeter triangles and squares towards the “dark” star, so there is only a tiny bit at the end of the point where the orange might shadow through the white.

Challenges:

  • The star points are all on the bias, so they have a tendency to stretch. When first pieced together, they made a “cup”, and required pressing to lay flat.
  • There are many seams coming together in the middle, but with all seams pressed open, it helped even out the thickness
  • This is a very strong colour, sitting to the right of the centre block. I will have to plan to balance this out as I construct the other blocks near the centre.

Here’s what the quilt looks like so far:

This traditional block features Y-seams, the bane of many quilters. I watched a few YouTube videos, but they didn’t really add anything that I hadn’t already tried.