Easter With Dear Jane

We had a four-day weekend for Easter.  Even with making 3 desserts and having a big family lunch and spending time on grading papers and lesson plans, I had a good amount of time to devote to Dear Jane.  

Missing blocks for Row I. 

I went ahead and pulled out the copies to complete Row I.  At first I thought I bit off more than I could chew, but by Monday I had them all complete.  I 10 was a bugger.  Even harder than the star in a star I thought.  

Hardest one so far.

Now I have rows A - J nearly complete.  There are a few random missing blocks and the inner corners that I have not decided which color to use, but the end is definitely in sight.

Rows A-J.  Easter 2022

Sapphire Jubilee Gets a Design Wall

Fabric In:  Still no fabric in even though I saw some possibilities at the thrift store!

Fabric Out:  Nothing out either.  I made good progress on the Quiltmaker Mystery Quilt, but have not finished Part 3. 

Everything so far.

I got the flannel backed tablecloth up as a design wall.  All the completed blocks from Parts 1, 2, and 3 are up.  I am liking the look.  A few questionable blocks, but now that I can see them all together they are less questionable than before!  I can see which fabrics I need to include more of in the coming blocks.

Flying Geese for Part 3 are prepped for the coming week. 

I tried making the flying geese the way the magazine suggested and it worked well, so I prepped these for my sewing this week.

Fabric In This Week: 0 yards

Fabric In YTD: 14.5 yards

Fabric Out This Week: 0 yards

Fabric Out YTD: 9.99 yards

Stash Movement: 4.51 yards in

As far as time spent sewing ....... 

I worked on Dear Jane over the long weekend when I had longer periods of time for sewing.  Then slow and steady during the week on the blocks I had prepped for the Mystery Quilt.

Dear Jane I 10 nearly got the best of me!

Days of at least 15 minutes of sewing this week: 7/7

Days of at least 15 minutes of sewing in April: 22/23

Days of at least 15 minutes of sewing in 2022: 104/115

Percentage: 90%

Linking up to Quiltpaintcreate and Kates Life in Pieces to stay accountable.

Sapphire Jubilee - Prepped for the Week

I was working so hard on Dear Jane over our nice four-day weekend that I almost didn't get blocks prepped to work on during the coming week.  I really needed to since I had completed every last bit that was already prepped as leaders and enders for the Dear Jane blocks.  Fortunately, I got my lesson plans done Monday morning and that freed up the afternoon for sewing and prepping.  

Sapphire Jubilee part 3

I got one block made as a guide and the other four prepped and four more ready to go.  I was pretty sluggish on this block because I didn't like the white start and cream background in the instructions.  With the gingham the star shows and I like this much better.  Onward! 

A Pretty Pillow

Fabric In:  I'm on a roll.  No fabric in again this week!

Fabric Out:  I had an impromptu sewing project with one of my students that you can read about HERE.  We made a super cute pillow.  0.57 yards out plus a pillow form !!

Fabric In This Week: 0 yards

Fabric In YTD: 14.5 yards

Fabric Out This Week: 0.57 yards

Fabric Out YTD: 9.99 yards

Stash Movement: 4.51 yards in

Slowly headed in the right direction.

As far as time spent sewing ....... 

I sewed through a boring ZOOM meeting on mute Monday evening!  I thought I had worked through too much of my prepped project to keep me for the rest of the week, but with making the pillow it all balanced out.

Days of at least 15 minutes of sewing this week: 7/7

Days of at least 15 minutes of sewing in April: 15/16

Days of at least 15 minutes of sewing in 2022:  95/106

Percentage: 90%

Linking up to Kate's Life in Pieces to share progress and stay accountable.

Crafternoon With My Student

Monday:  One of my students told me that her younger stepsister was having a birthday party on Saturday and likes cheetahs and could I make her something!  Ummmm.  This is a child who helped make and then won the Spring Carnival Auction Quilt, so she is well aware that I sew.  She has also had a really rough year, so I thought about it for 2 seconds and said that yes we could come up with something, but it might not be an actual cheetah toy.  It's a 4-day week for us, so whatever it was had to be quick and with supplies on hand.  I told her we could make a pillow.

Tuesday:  I took a 12" square of muslin and the fabric markers so she could design her pillow front.  I was thinking of some animal print fabric I had saved (for 15 years!) for a special project, but if it would work for her backing that would be good.  Imagine my surprise when she starts drawing a rainbow colored heart with cheetah spots!  Looks like the animal print fabric is safe for a few more years.  She didn't know how to correctly spell the sister's name, so that part got put on hold until we had verification.

We had a good time after school with her drawing and chatting and me grading papers.  When I got home I had to figure out how to finish it.  I wanted to make it "girly" but in the absence of appropriate lace I made a long strip of rainbow colors and made a ruffle.  Considering I just cut whatever made the most sense from the scrap of fabric I pulled, it came out surprisingly uniform, which was not my intention at all.   

I had a small pillow form on hand, which guided my measurements.  One thousand pins later, the front had a ruffle.  Then I found the perfect backing and sewed that on. 

Wednesday: She had also thought of how to package this gift, and asked "if I happened to have an extra gift bag at home" so I choose a cute one from my stash.  As soon as she got to school, she was beside herself waiting to see what I had done for my part.   It was the biggest smile I have seen from her all year.  After school she added the name and more hearts and together we inserted the pillow form and stitched it shut.  She did the packaging herself.

She was so pleased with herself.  If she doesn't learn anything else this year, I hope these afternoons will hold meaning for her.  I know they were good for me.

Spring Break with Dear Jane

 Dear Jane Reality Check

My original plan for Dear Jane was keeping each color in their own bag which resulted in much hemming and hawing over which block to work on depending on whether I would sew by machine or hand.  For a long time Jane only came out when we had no electricity during hurricanes, road trips for swim meets, or longer break from work and I had more time on my hands.  Progress was extremely slow.

early January 2022

Over the Christmas break my strategy for Dear Jane changed drastically.   I hung a flannel backed tablecloth on the biggest wall in the guest room/office.  Then I emptied all the bags and placed the completed blocks in their correct position.  It fits rows A-J, which is good enough for now.   Wow!  I had a lot more finished that I had thought - and that inspired me!

Melons - my nemesis

The next change was to stop agonizing over which block to make.  How often had I paged through the book and thought and thought and not made a thing?  I had already made copies of each block so that I could use them as a base for paper piecing or cut up the individual pieces without destroying my book.  I removed all the copies of blocks that were complete and put the remaining copies in order. 

The biggest decision has been the most effective.  Whatever block is next in the stack of copies is made next regardless of level of difficulty.  This has been liberating!  

After making so much progress over the Christmas break I added Dear Jane to my monthly goals.  Well, once school started back up that just didn't work.  They turned out to be too complicated to do when I get home from work.  I feel that I need to give it more attention than I have on a work day.  So nothing got done until Spring Break.  But it was good to figure out that that is how it is going to be.

Not symmetrical, but good enough for now! 

So instead of working on an easier project during Spring Break, I focused on Jane.  I am over halfway and the end is in sight.  I even completed the dreaded G6 - the star in a star!

mid-March 2022 

We have a 4 day weekend for Easter and I am hoping to make some progress on Jane during that time.

Sapphire Jubilee Part 2 Complete!

Still no fabric in!  My sister gave me some thrift store rejects, but I rejected them also and will move them along.  It wasn't even cotton, so there was no temptation at all.

Sapphire Jubilee - mix of blocks from Part 1 and Part 2

Fabric Out: I finished Part 2 of the Quiltmaker Ruby Jubilee Mystery.  Since my stash is heavy on blues, my mystery is a Sapphire Jubilee.  I don't remember which blocks are Part 1 and which are Part 2, so this is a peek of what I have going so far.  There are some blocks that I question, but at this point I will wait and see when it all comes together.  I really need to get my flannel-backed tablecloth design wall hung back up.  Part 2 is a total of 1.22 yards.

Sapphire Jubilee Parts 1 and 2

Fabric In This Week: 0 yards

Fabric In YTD: 14.5 yards

Fabric Out This Week: 1.22 yards

Fabric Out YTD: 9.42 yards

Stash Movement: 5.08 yards in

Slowly headed in the right direction.

As far as time spent sewing ....... 

Last weekend was very busy with hosting the family for my sister's birthday.  Then Teacher E came for an overnight since it was her Spring Break.  I didn't get a stash report written, but I only missed one day of sewing.  

Prepping pieces to just pick up and sew is definitely a game changer.  I was tempted this weekend to sit and sew what I prepped Friday evening, but then I reminded myself that I would have nothing to sew when I was tired during the week if I did that.   I made a sample block for Part 3 of the Jubilee Mystery and then kitted up the pieces for the remaining blocks I need of that particular design.  At this rate I finish a set of blocks each week.

Days of at least 15 minutes of sewing this week: 7/7

Days of at least 15 minutes of sewing in March 30/31  and   April 8/9 

Days of at least 15 minutes of sewing in 2022: 75/85    88/99

Percentage: 89%

Linking up to Kate's Life in Pieces to share progress and stay accountable.