Dear Jane So Far, plus BAD NEWS!

I was anxious to look at all the Dear Jane blocks I'd finished so far in advance of visiting the original Jane Stickle quilt tomorrow at the Bennington Museum in Vermont, so I threw them up on my design wall in no particular order and snapped this photo. I think they are looking pretty good! They look a bit wild, since we weren't supposed to trim them yet, but I get the sense that the fabrics will work together in the end. I may remake one or two of the blocks that seem especially wonky later on, but we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, the heartbreaking bad news is that I just called the Bennington Museum to double-check some directions and learned that the quilt is no longer on display! I am so sad/mad at the same time. I am pretty sure the museum's website indicated that the Dear Jane quilt was on display through the end of the month, but believe it or not,  nothing I said to the poor woman who answered the phone was going to get them to put it back up on exhibit tomorrow. For me.

Here's a link to the museum's description of the quilt on its website. Read the last line of the text under the photos, and tell me if you agree that the quilt should still be on display!

Split stars for October's Block Lotto drawing

Aren't these great? The pattern is so simple, but the blocks are striking because there's such contrast between the fabrics. I really like this block, and hope that I'll get lucky and win this month. Maybe I'll even get around to making 5 more blocks to boost my chances.

It's funny, these blocks finish at 9 inches, so they are 9 1/2 inches unfinished and feel ENORMOUS to me. I think I've been infected by the Dear Jane quilt project, where the blocks finish at just 4 1/2 inches. Teeny, tiny blocks with lots and lots of pieces.

I'm really excited to be able to report that I think I'm going to be able to see the real, original Jane Stickle quilt on Friday. I'm heading up to Middlebury, VT to see my oldest son perform in a play, and I just realized that Bennington, where the quilt is on display through the end of the month, is almost right on the way!!! Almost. My husband's already agreed to the detour, so it's a plan. I'll take a photo and post it after the pilgrimage. 

Baby house quilt top finished

I've just put together the house blocks made for a friend's baby quilt. I think it's adorable! Now on to create the back and quilt it---the baby is due next week!

Lucky find: the Wiltwyck Quilters Guild Show

I was in New Paltz, NY today and was lucky enough to be handed a flyer for a quilt show only 20 minutes away. So of course I jumped in the car and headed over. The show was called Quilts in the Valley and it was the Wiltwyck Quilters biennial show, held this year in Accord, NY

I saw quite a few quilts I really liked. Here are some that  was able to get decent photos of:

The Way We Were by Marie Reed, Tilson NY. In the note about this quilt in the program, Marie said she'd made part of this quilt in a class, and the rest on her own. She appeared to have fussy-cut images from fabric and appliqued them to the backing, like some 200-year-old quilts I remember seeing in a Vermont museum a couple of years ago. Really charming!

Here's a detail:

Along the same lines, I like this quilt, called  My Village Quilt by Joan Perpetua, Kingston, NY. There was something old-fashioned but modern about this quilt at the same time, and it was nicely done.

Wooly Flowers, by Lois B. Stewart of Poughkeepsie, NY, was interesting too. It looked like she'd used a thicker wool material to create the flowers, and had appliqued them to the surface. 

 

I was blown away by the quilting on this quilt, called Cool Vibration, by Roberta Brodie of Hyde Park, NY. She said in the program notes that she'd made it in a 6-month class. It was very impressive.

Here are a couple of details that show the quilting. The quilt was 3-dimensional because of the quilting, and it was really striking.

 
Another really impressive and very large quilt was this one, called Rainbow Sorbet, made by Joan Carragher of New Paltz, NY. It's made entirely out of little puckered fabric disks (called yo-yos?) that are just stitched together with space in between, creating a lacy effect. She said she'd gotten the idea for it from a photo she'd seen in a magazine of an antique version of the quilt. Here's a photo of as much of the quilt as I could get into one photo, with a detail.

 

I loved this quilt, called John O by Peggy Smith of Glenford, NY. It's quite  simple, but the fabric she chose is striking---it really has a presence. She said she'd made it for her son to take to college.

I also admired this quilt, which is called Colorful Nine Patches and was made by Evelyn Urbom of Rhinebeck, NY. She said she'd been inspired by the fabric she found for the border to create the rest of the  quilt, and it seems she'd gotten the 9-patches in a swap. It was really attractive, with great colors.

The last photo I'm posting from this show is of a Dear Jane variation by Liese Burice of Red Hook, NY. The colors she'd chosen were lovely---they were somewhat muted, and covered the rainbow, but it worked together very nicely. I was interested to see that she'd made a border like Jane's, but with a variety of colors for the solid triangels. It looked great---she must have a really good sense of color.

That's all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Dear Jane fever--I've got it.

Once again, leaving many UFOs behind, I'm off on something new: Dear Jane!
Here are the 4 blocks I've completed since I started a Dear Jane class at the City Quilter on Monday (I posed them on my back porch with my Dear Jane book!)

And for any Janiacs working on this quilt, the blocks I've made so far are (starting with the blue star on the top left and going clockwise) A13, L2, B3 and A1.

We started A13 during the first class, and sewed it by hand, using freezer paper templates. My friend Robyn and I were the only two newbies in class---everyone else had been working on their Dear Jane quilts for awhile, and were just coming to class to stay inspired and have some fun.

I made the second block, L2, through a combination of paper piecing and regular piecing, on the machine. This block was the "challenge" block given by the teachers. Anyone who makes one gets their name entered in a drawing for a prize at the next class. I think they are also offering a weekly prize for the students who makes the most blocks that week to inspire us.

I also sewed the other 2 blocks----B3 and A1---on the machine. I'd never pieced circles before, so it took me a couple of tries to make something acceptable for B3. The A1 block was easy---just a bunch of half-square triangles---and I've done so many of those I could do them in my sleep.

I'm going to make the entire quilt out of batiks that are based around this theme fabric pictured below---an idea I got from the people at the quilt shop.

I don't think my photo does it justice, but this fabric has got all the colors I love: purples, blues, greens, and even a few browns and oranges thrown in.  And I love batiks! I have a lot of them in my stash, so I hope this quilt will help me cut down on fabric I already own---always my dream.

Will I ever finish this? I wouldn't place any bets, but you never know. Meanwhile, I'm having a lot of fun working on it.

Baby quilt in progress

A couple of months ago I learned that a friend who'd been trying to get pregnant for some time was expecting, and that her baby is due in October. She's a quilter herself, and a big fan of 1930s reproduction fabrics, so I organized a group of her quilting buddies to make a baby quilt. My friend is one of those old-fashioned women who doesn't want to know the baby's sex in advance (unlike me, who found out at the first possible moment that my 3 boys would be boys) so we tried to keep the pattern and fabric neutral.

I'd just had fun making house blocks for the monthly Block Lotto drawing when the prospect of planning a baby quilt came up, so I decided to adapt that pattern for the project. I only changed the pattern in one way: I suggested that anyone who wanted to personalize their block by putting a figure in the window or door of the house was welcome to do so.

So here's a photo of the blocks I have so far on my design wall:

Pretty cute, aren't they? The only block that jumped out at me after I took this photo was one I'd made---on the bottom left---where one of the fabrics is way too dark and the butterfly in the window looks like a menacing bat!

So last night I altered that block, and substituted a yellow solid and a baby chick for the offending material I'd used before. I'm still not convinced it works---because the yellow solid still jumps out at me--- so I think I may remake the block again later with fabric I just found that's more in keeping with the reproduction spirit of the quilt. If you feel like it, leave me a comment and let me know if I should dump the yellow solid.

I'm still waiting for 3 more blocks from friends, and I'll probably make another myself, so by the time it's finished the quilt will be rectangular rather than square. 

Last weekend, I got some fabulous sashing fabrics lat a wonderful quilt shop called The Patchwork Company in Windham, NY, and since then I've been really excited about how this will all come together.  I'll post again when I've got the top finished....hopefully  before the baby's born!

Even more monkey blocks!

It feels great to be back posting on this blog---I'm sorry I've been away from it for so long! I had a very busy end to my summer, including very adventurous 3-week-long trip to China, and then a visit from my dear brother and his family from Seattle, so I have not done any posting.

I have managed to sneak in a little quilting, here and there. Here's a photo of the all of the monkey blocks I've finished to date:

I love making them because they're so simple and they require so little fabric, but at the same time they help use up my endless scraps. I don't see any end to this project in sight: I think I'll just keep making them until I get tired of them or until I have enough to make a queen-size quilt for my bed. I have a feeling that I'd smile every time I see this quilt. The colors are so happy, and the scraps are from so many quilts I've made in the past that I imagine it will will always have the power to bring back happy memories.