Rainbow Jane K-2

A little on the wonky side but I've found that steam helps a lot.
Blocks also straighten out quite a bit when you sewing them together with the sashing.

Progress so far (171 blocks)

(BTW: BOM signups for February 2012 are now open.)

Rainbow Jane K-1

Why is red such an awful color to scan?

Rainbow Jane J-11

Row J is now done, but I haven't made a single block in rows K-M.

Steady progress

I should count how many melons Jane appliquéd!
She clearly loved them.

Rainbow Jane J-10

This took about 12 hours total.

It turned out better than the original, I think.
The main reason was that I used the "freezer paper on top" method for the new one and I had used the "freezer paper inside" method originally.
I you have paper inside your shapes it makes them just a tiny bit larger and, on a block this little, it makes a huge difference.
If the shapes are too big, you really have to squish them into their spots.

Rainbow Jane I-11

All rows up to row I finished!

Rainbow Jane I-10

I had trouble with this one last night.

Finished is better than perfect, right?

Rainbow Jane RS-7

Announcement!

This blog now has a Facebook page!

I personally find it easier to keep up with Facebook pages than blog readers, so I figured there must be others who feel the same way.

The blog will still publish to readers but all posts will appear on the Facebook page as well.

http://www.facebook.com/thatquilt

Rainbow Jane H-12

Rainbow Jane F-12

Rainbow Jane H-8, G-9

Finished these on Thursday.

H-8

G-9

This is where I'm at

It took a couple of hours, but I think I have my ducks in a row...

Not that many blocks left, actually.

Help!

First, a lesson. Don't do this:

Make blocks halfway, then store them in little ziplock baggies without labeling them. You won't remember. Trust me.

Batik Jane

(This is a double post, so if you read my other blog too, my apologies).

I'm not doing much myself right now, but a friend and I went "Stash Dashing" on Friday.
As you may or may not know, I'm a little obsessed with Dear Jane quilts.
This one is made with batiks.
Stunning!

(It is on display at Heirloom Quilts in Poulsbo, WA.  The lady who made it works there but did not want to pose for a photo. Hats off to her for this absolutely lovely work of art!)

B-2

B-2 (16 pieces, 60 minutes)

Instructions over here: http://thatquilt.blogspot.com/2009/01/b-2.html

Finished a couple of RBJ blocks

I had a couple of Rainbow Jane blocks that were complete except for the applique.
I figured that, since I "had" to sit in front of the television for a couple of hours to watch the Oscars, this would be a good time to work on them.
And keep my hands out of the cookie jar. Do you tend to eat while watching television?

I prepped them beforehand and laid them out on the kitchen table.

This way I could get to them one by one without missing one moment.

BTW...I'm not normally an obsessive television watcher.
I just love the Oscars.

Calling all bloggers!

Yesterday I decided to remove the list of "Jane" bloggers in the sidebar, since most of them had gotten really outdated.
I didn't think anyone was even looking at them any more, but now I've gotten a couple of emails wondering where they went.

So...if you have a blog where you keep track of your progress, leave a comment here with your blog url and I'll add it to a new sidebar list.

Made this baby last night:

B-1 (2 pieces, 55 minutes)

I put two new progress charts in the sidebar.

One for Rainbow Jane and one for 30's Jane.

30's Jane!

I'm making slow progress on 30's Jane.
It's fun.
I do love these fabrics.
I've decided that this time I'm going to keep track of the number of pieces as well as how long it takes me to make each block.

So far:

A-1 (28 pieces, 50 minutes)

A-2 (40 pieces,60 minutes)

A-3 (9 pieces, 105 minutes)

If you'd like to join the Block-of-the-Month or Fabric-of-the-Month, there is still time. We'll start on the 2nd Monday of March.

Call me crazy

I just couldn't help myself.

You try and spend every day surrounded by 30's fabric and kits and resist.
If you'd like to join in on the craziness, I have both a BOM and Fabric-of-the-Month starting in March over in the store (sorry about the shameless plug).
I'm going to follow the sequence of the BOM in making the blocks, but I don't think I'll make the triangles this time round.

I've created a Flickr set just for this quilt over in my photostream.
I will, of course, also share pertinent photos in the "That Quilt" group.

My plan is to start the quilting on my original quilt (the one that started it all) soon. The plan is to quilt each block individually, so that could be another 2-year journey.  I will share over here, so stay tuned.

The Block Box is Empty

Filling in the gaps

Now that we have the corners on, it's time to fill in with the rest of the triangles.

Once again, I prefer the "chunky" assembly method. I sewed a plain triangle to each pieced triangle first.

And then attached them all to each other.

After that, we can sew the strips to the corners. Remember how you only sewed about 2" into the second triangle when attaching the corner sections? That was so that you could attach the "inbetween" triangles more easily.

Now you should have this:

And, once again, I marked those little seam points.

Stay tuned for another "ta-da!" moment.

Triangle Wrangling

So now your quilt center is all assembled because I inspired you and you hopped right to it. Right?

You're ready to attach the triangle border. The quilt top weighs about 3lbs. The corners have set in seams with 27 triangles between each two corners.
And you have to line up each triangle with the sashing between the blocks.
Scared yet?

You could make a border "frame" and then attach it to the quilt center.
I tried to imagine maneuvering that under the sewing machine and knew I'd have to come up with something easier.

Here's what I did.

First, you have to cut 56 setting tri's. You can cut them in batches. That's my plan. My attention span is just too short to cut 56 triangles in one sitting. Mark the seams just like you did with the blocks.

Pick one corner kite, two blocks on either side, and six setting tri's and assemble them into a corner unit as below. The markings on the triangles (see my previous post) will help you with accurate assembly.

Repeat this for all four corners.

Next, mark seam positions on the quilt top. If you're using a disappearing marker like me, just mark the corner and two blocks out each way because marking more will just disappear overnight. (Yes, the one marking is in the wrong spot. I fixed it after I took the photo.)

Now attach those little corner sections to the quilt top, sewing the seam only about two inches into the second triangle. Once again, all those little marks will make lining everything up a breeze.

Make sense?

Today I hope to finish the triangle border.  Stay tuned.

(If you're interested, I have a couple of disappearing markers over here.  Just email me and I'll give you the details.)

Accuracy is key

While a little bit of fudging on block sizes was OK, when attaching the triangles, accuracy is far more important.
I marked the seam intersections on each corner with a disappearing marker, making it easier to line up the blocks correctly when making the triangle border.

Whoo-hoo!

I spent the WHOLE day yesterday working on Jane.

Can you see that I've even started attaching the triangles?

(For those with questions: After you've assembled the top, you have to add a 1/4" (yes 1/4"!) border all the way around or the triangle border will not fit.)

Remake

It's funny how time "heals all wounds". Most of the blocks I was sure I was going to remake now look OK. Finished is better than perfect, right?

This one, however, stuck out like a sore thumb, color-wise:

Since I'm trying to complete the top assembly today, I had to quickly make a substitute.

I used my own instructions. They work quite well, if I must say so myself.

Inspiration!

I have made a little bit of progress on my quilt top since the last post.

This, however, has made me determined to finish it this weekend.

Robin of Crafty Musings has finished the center of her quilt top. She's moving on the the triangles.
Isn't the green absolutely stunning?
She's been doing blog posts about her blocks all through this process. You can see them on her blog.
Did I mention that she hand pieced all these little blocks?

Congratulations Robin!

Chunky Assembly

Can you tell I'm really inspired to finish this?

I've had a couple of questions about my assembly method, so I thought I'd explain how I'm doing it.

The first way that came to mind was, of course, to sew the blocks into rows and then sew the rows together.
I did not relish the thought of having to sew 13 very long rows together, so I devised the "chunky" plan.
I'm sewing the blocks together in sections of 4 or 5 wide by 3 or 4 high.
I then assemble these sections into a wider "row".
In the end I will have only 3 long seams to sew. Woohoo!

The "chunk" on the left consists of blocks H-1 to J-5.
The chunk on the right will be H-6 to J9, which I will then attach to the first one.
The last chunk for this section will be H-10 to J-13.
So, when I'm done with this "row", it will have H-1 (at the top left) to J-13(at the bottom right) and I can sew this to the 13-block-wide section above it.  You can see that in yesterday's post.

Does that make any sense?

Progress!

Jane and I spent a little bit of quality time together this weekend.

I have new incentive to finish her and her sister Rainbow.
I'm a crazy nutcase, but since I've put 30's Jane up in the store, I haven't been able to keep myself from dreaming about her.  Is there such a thing as a Jane-o-holic?

I am, however, not allowing myself the indulgence until Jane and Rainbow are D-O-N-E.