A9 Cabin Fever

The date on this picture is October 9th. I thought I had started it months and months ago - so I think all in all the fact that it is finished is pretty good.



I took this block to Seattle to work on while Jim attended his fisheries conference. I quite often take my Dear Jane blocks with me - I find the hotel ironing boards come in quite handy - and it is nice that I don't have to bring my own ironing board along.



I actually worked on the block quite a bit in Seattle - sometimes the blocks come along for a ride and never make it out of the bag!



And here is the finished block.

Cabin Fever.



Cabin Fever -- thats a good name for this block that I just finished while living through the most snowfall in the history of Vancouver!

I am still slowly but surely plodding away at my quilt. This one had many, many pieces - something like 45 or so. I am glad this one is finished. I started one with a few less pieces -- M12. Just a few little short seams - so hopefully it will be done quickly. Maybe I should do a triangle. I haven't done any of those yet.

Happy New Year. Here's to a productive and fruitful 2009. One year to Olympics!

L-11 Caitlin's Rose

This one has certainly taken a long time to finish -- and it has done quite a bit of traveling as well. Back and forth to Calgary a couple of times and to Inuvik and back this past September. Talk about slow going - at this rate I will not make my 10 year deadline!!

I have been busy with other things though I must admit. I also have bought a fair amount of civil war fabrics on my recent shopping frenzy of the summer. So now that it is fall I will hopefully get back to quilting with some commitment on my part. Wash up all my new fabric and get it ready for future blocks. And hopefully the next block won't take 5 months!!!

H-7 Bennington Star

This block was a long time coming - but at least I am still plodding along and making them!!



This is block #39 for me. So that means there are only 186 blocks left to make -LOL

I have started L-11 Caitlin's Rose. I haven't done any applique blocks for a while now - so I should do a few applique blocks. It is nice to have another one finished though - I took it to Calgary with me - didn't do anything on it at all - and finally finished the last border piece at my Friday quilt group. It was a nice little quilt group day as not only did I finish the block but we had a nice lunch for my 50th birthday and Trudi's 65th birthday. And all 5 of us in the group we finally there - we hadn't been all together since October. Dorothy and Barbara both brought little gifts for us from their Panama cruises ( not together) and we had a lovely visit -- along with a bit of stitching.

L-11 Caitin's Rose

I have been running out of my prepped and bagged up blocks so I decided I needed to make up a few more. The first block I start to prep last night was L-11 Caitlin's Rose. As I was laying the template pieces on the fabric to iron I realized that the little diamond shaped pieces were not all the same size -- which they really should have been - or so I thought. So I pulled out the book - which is what I use as a reference when I lay the blocks out to stitch together. Although I print the blocks on the freezer paper using the computer program.




So first thing I realize by putting each little diamond piece on the book pattern is the diamonds are NOT all the same and each diamond -- although they look very similar - are quite different in size and shape and have a specific place in the pattern. So as you can see by the photo I labeled each diamond piece with a couple of letters and then labeled each template piece to match. Then the next thing I discovered was that I had a bunch of extra half square triangles that I couldn't figure out where they were to go -- and the other triangles that I had didn't seem to work. I know that some of the patterns in the book are different than the patterns in the computer program.



So I went to the computer and printed out the block for reference. As you can see the two blocks are quite different. I had to find the right layout for the diamonds again - but it seems to be the same as the book. But this one has four more half square triangles and a much smaller centre block. I think it looks a little more similar to the original quilt block. Brenda redrafted a few of the blocks - so for all you Dear Janer's out there that are using both the computer program and the book - remember that some of the blocks in the book are different than the CD. I found that for some of the blocks in the program there are a couple of different versions of the block as well. Fortunately I found this out before I started sewing the diamonds to the half square triangles and they were not aligned properly and the block didn't quite fit together. When you look at the block and the diamond shaped you don't think they are different sizes.

B-10 Jud's Trophy

This one was a long time coming!!!




I can't even remember when I started it but I finished it yesterday. Great to have it finished. I was having some major issues today with the scanner and such but I was able to overcome them with only minor frustrations -LOL - although if you asked Jim he would tell you I was a bit more frustrated than I admit.

I need to get Eric to update the blocks on my Dear Jane virtual quilt. I think he is about 4 behind. I think I am up to 35 now -- but who's counting!!