4 Easy Machine-Pieced Blocks for Jane

I am sure you think by now that we've all gone away ... never to be seen again. But it's not true. Sometimes life just throws out a few challenges and we find it necessary to answer them first.

We're all here. We're all doing "ok" in our own way. But struggling to keep up with things. Again, I'll try to check in with the other girls. But hey ... it just might be me for a while.

I pulled Jane out of the cupboard today. She's been staring at me. Not guiltily, just in a "you'd feel better if you made a block or two" kind of way. She was right. I made 4 and I feel great!

First I needed a kick start. Something easy. I grabbed my book and it fell open to page 90 and my I went straight to J-2. Not bad. I could handle that.

So I grabbed my trusty 6-1/2" ruler and set to measuring.

Dear Jane® book reference: Block J-2, page 90

Background (my solid teal):

• Four 1-3/4" squares 
• Two 3-1/4" squares ... cut each in half diagonally so you will have 4 triangles for the corners.

Print:

• Two 3/4" x 1-3/4" pieces
• Three 3/4" x 3-1/4" pieces (these will be a tad long, trim it to length after you've sewn it to 1/2 of the center section)
• Two 3/4" x 3-3/4"

It's really a pretty simple block. But after sewing the very center section together I checked that it was square before adding the teal frame all the way around. Then I sewed the four print corners and finally trimmed the finished block to 5" square making sure that I have a 1/4" seam allowance beyond each point.

Back to the book, I was ready for another. I think this one would have been just as quick if I hadn't started with the wrong size for the center square. A deep breath and started again resulted in this beauty that was very pretty before I decided to zap it with a bit of spray starch.

Dear Jane® book reference: Block I-8, page 85

Background (my solid teal):

• Two 2-1/2" squares cut each in half diagonally so you will have 4 triangles
• Two 2-5/8" squares cut each in half diagonally so you will have 4 triangles
• Two 1-1/4" x 2-3/4" pieces
• Two 1-1/4" x 3-1/4" pieces

Print:

• One 1-5/8" square for the center
• Two 2-5/8" squares cut each in half diagonally so you will have 4 triangles
• Two 1-7/8" squares cut each in half diagonally - you'll use these in the final "border"

Then I went about sewing, pressing, trimming repeatedly. Sew two print triangles to opposite sides of the center square, press then trim the points of the triangles flush with the square. Sew the opposite sides, press and trim the completed square-in-a-square unit. You're aiming for about 2-1/16" square - not generally an easy measurement. The idea is to trim it like Block J-2 above - allowing for 1/4" seam allowance beyond the tips on each side. Then sew the next set of triangles. This time solid backgrounds first to opposite sides, press and trim. Then to the opposite sides again. Press and trim this unit to 2-3/4". Finally add another set of triangles - using your print. And trim this time to about 3-5/8" ... the most important thing is those tips again, don't cut them off. Concentrate on having a 1/4" seam allowance. To add the border, I sewed the triangles to the end of the 1-1/4" pieces then trimmed that long even with the long edge of the triangle. Then added the second piece and trimmed again. I'd be happy to post a pic if you like - just let me know. THEN I trimmed the entire block to 5" .. it really worked out. I was dead pleased. You could paper piece this one ... but this rotary cutting and machine piecing worked out so slick that I am very glad I didn't.


So, ready for block three? This one really couldn't get any easier. I chose to strip-piece in two short lengths (cuz that's how long my poison green scrap was ... a tad over 6").

Dear Jane® book reference: Block M-12, page 119

Background (my solid teal):

• Two 3/4" x 6-1/2" lengths
• Four 2" squares

Print:

• Four 3/4" x 6-1/2" lengths

Sew one length of background a length of print. Press toward the background - yes, even if it is lighter. You'll be glad you did this. And tomorrow I'll take a pic of the back of my block so you can see how flat it lays. Sew another length of print to the other side and press again toward the background. Repeat this so you have two "racing" stripes. Trim the end of each strip square (line up your ruler against a seam, not the edge of the print fabric), then cross-cut each stripe into three 2" sections. Yes, you'll have one left over as a spare. Sew together as a 9-patch. Spin the intersecting seams at the corners. Yes, I know that pic would really help right about now ... tomorrow ...

Finally, block 4. This one really wasn't bad either. Just a pinwheel with a border.

Dear Jane® book reference: Block E-3, page 50

Background (my solid teal):

• Two 2-3/8" squares
• Two 1-7/8" squares

Print:

• Two 2-3/8" squares
• Two 1-7/8" squares
• Four 1-3/8" x 3-1/4"

For the pinwheel: Place 2-3/8" squares of background and print right sides together, draw a diagonally line on the wrong side of whichever you can see best. Sew a 1/4" seam from each side of this line. Cut apart on the line and press to the darker fabric. Trim these units to 1-7/8" square. Sew together as a pinwheel, spin the intersecting seam to reduce bulk.


For the corner triangles: Place 1-7/8" squares of background and print right sides together, draw a diagonally line on the wrong side of whichever you can see best. Sew a 1/4" seam from each side of this line. Cut apart on the line and press toward the background fabric - even if it is lighter. This will help to reduce a lot of bulk. Trim these units to 1-3/8" square. Sew two of these to the end of a 1-3/8" x 3-1/4" piece twice. 


Assemble the block by sewing the remaining 1-3/8" x 3-1/4" pieces to each side of the pinwheel. Press toward the background and add the other border to the remaining two sides. Press again toward this "border."

So there you have it. Hmmm, enough info? If you're struggling with any of these instructions or need more help, PLEASE don't hesitate to ask. I'll do my best to take additional photos.

So I'm up to 32 blocks? How about you? Any you are struggling with?

These are the ones I have made so far. 

Pretty wild. 

And I am really loving it without sashing. 

 keep in mind I am not following Jane's setting. 

mine will be set in a rainbow trip around the world

Did you know that Jane's quilt did not have sashing??

1. A-1, 2. A-2, 3. A-3, 4. A-4, 5. A-5, 6. A-7, 7. A-8 (re-done), 8. B-1, 9. B-3, 10. B-4, 11. B-9, 12. B-10, 13. C-1 (adaptation), 14. C-3, 15. C-6, 16. C-9, 17. C-10, 18. D-9, 19. E-3, 20. F-7 (changed), 21. H-13, 22. I-1, 23. I-8, 24. J-2, 25. J-6, 26. K-7, 27. L-4, 28. L-5, 29. L-7, 30. M-2, 31. M-9, 32. M-12 (sadly it won't show itself unless you click on this link)

Carnival (Kermis) Brights!

four more Janes, a photo by Jovita's Patchwork Atelier on Flickr.

I was able to sit down to the sewing machine for a while yesterday and made these four Contemporary Jane blocks. Am happy with the first three .. but didn't realize until later how much D-9 and A-8 are alike. So I will probably re-do A-8 .. reversing the background and using a completely different color - like green!

Happy sewing to you all .. things are bright and colorful around here. Kermis is in town although I have to admit it's much more bearable this year. It rained the first couple evenings which meant things closed down much early. Today is the most important day .. Jaarmarkt .. so I sat on the sidewalk with handwork and drew quite a few onlookers eager to know what I was doing and Why? Oh, and by the way, how did an American end up in Kalken???

Wednesday Works (in Progress)

I've been sadly neglecting Jane too long ..



Quite a few blocks are "in progress" but I have no finished to show ... hopefully soon. Please don't give up on me.

I've been holding my breath all week. "Kermis" comes to Kalken this weekend and we're hoping beyond belief that we can avoid a repeat of last year.

This photo was taken from our bedroom window - let's just say we don't sleep much for three days!  so far there's no sign of the bus stop being blocked and any set up at our end of the road/village .. but there's still tonight. Last year they parked up their rigs in the middle of the night with a lot of shouting "no, a little more Left. LEFT. I said LEFT!!!"

oi vey .. g'night all .. if all goes well I'll stay indoors and stitch and stitch away and have lots to show when the Kermis pulls out of town on Wednesday next week.  xox Jovita

Hot August Not

Honestly, where does time go ... ? In the back of my mind I've had this nagging feeling (along with a couple of migraines) that I haven't blogged here ... but then neither has anyone else.

I promise things HAVE been happening behind the scenes.

You see ... I got kind of caught up ... in a crazy hexagon craze! This wasn't really supposed to happen, considering I'm still busy busy on this and this. But you see, Lynne of Lily's Quilts started a "HEX A LONG" inspired by this quilt and then ....

I only allow myself to work at this one a block at a time during the week and even then evenings only ... but weekends are fair game.

Then, there's this one, my take-along everywhere project. I picked up this simple but inexpensive case at Ikea (yes, I know coulda-shoulda *made* it but this way I have more time to stitch *fun* things). Makes taking along so simple: doctor's office, 5-hour round-trips to Germany, the garden for a half hour each evening when Axel comes home. When I get back, the hexies get sorted into my tray to make sure I'm keeping my color saturation where I want it. Am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the fabric I designed and was printed by Spoonflower and another order of Japanese fabrics ordered from the states. Also found some more gorgies at a friend's shop nearby.



And I promise to get busy on Jane again ... I realized today that I never blogged about my "fake" method for reverse applique - so that's on the top of the list for this week.


Maria, on the other hand, has been busy with Jane and you can see more of her gorgeous blocks here.



I know Deb has been busy too getting ready for their quilt show. Now if only we'd been smart-er and had told you about it before the show ...

And I'll be checking in with Dana later tonight.

Mary? I am sooo excited .. we've made a date .. to have coffee and exchange our little quilts .. in November!!

So, what have you been up to? Has your weather been as crappy as ours (not that I'm complaining - wink ... our summer just came early - April / May early and now fall is firmly on it's way). Are you busy with the summer, kids going back to school, new projects, heaven forbid that jump start on Christmas gifts? Tell us what's on your sewing table ... we'd love to hear, and if you have a blog we'll be sure to stop by and see!

Don't forget I blog over here too .. you'll find my latest knitting project, a day out in Gent, a another quilt along - I'm one of the designers ... and more! I hope you'll stop by!

Dad's "Plaids"

Dear Jane® book reference: Block A-7, page 20

Jovita's Method: hand "normal" and reverse applique, hand pieced

My comments: This is another block that can be constructed many different ways.  I am quite certain that Jane used traditional hand-piecing. In fact the Dear Jane® CD reflects this with lines drawn from the ends of the melons to the closest corner. The diagram in the book doesn't even closely resemble the picture of the block. So the first decision was which I thought would be more attractive .. hands down, Jane's block of course, but those extra seams would be very short and I wasn't in the mood.
So I decided to applique. Hmmm, normal applique for all four squares or two "normal" and two reverse?

I considered two things: 1) would how I appliqued make any difference to how I choose to quilt later? and 2) would one of my fabrics show through the other when I appliqued one on top the other?

Wait, what? I'm thinking about the quilting already? Yes! That's what got me started on this whole crazy Contemporary Jane ride ... I saw THIS QUILT along with a whole bunch of you drooling folks!

What I loved about this quilt from the get-go is that it is only quilted in the white "background" so if I want to do that (or have that lovely Judi of Green Fairy Quilts do that) then I am making sure I plan a little ahead now. Look closing at blocks B-1 Bachelor Buttons on the left and C-9 Jane's Tears on the right. It's quilted IN the white ... so to get this effect reverse applique will be necessary ... or in my case "fake" reverse applique - but I'll explain that tomorrow.

But I digress .. right now we're talking about A-7. I took a minute to think about quilting in the background and decided that yes, to get that look I'd need to do two in normal and two in reverse applique. Here's a picture to make it clearer.

So yesterday at Jovita's Patchwork Atelier I wrote a little FAQ / Tutorial about reverse applique and showed a few of the steps in picture format.

Down-load a printer friendly version of this picture tutorial here.

I prepped for the block by cutting:

Background (black):
Two 3-1/2" squares with the melon shapes marked* diagonally
Two melon shapes
   * My favorite marking tool for dark fabrics is the White Marking Pen Fine (Item # 517) by Clover.  


And I just read this tip: Save your melon template to use again for block E-10 .. although I'll probably be skipping that block (wink).

Print (green):
Four 3-1/2" squares

Place two melons diagonally onto two green squares and baste in place (see diagram above).  Your basting should be a bit more than a 1/4" inide the marked line on the melon.

Place each marked black square on top of a green square.  Baste around the outside edge of the melon shape a little more than a 1/4" from the line (see diagram above).

Carefully clip away the inside of the applique shape taking care that you leave adequate seam allowance and don't cut into your applique shape below.

Now, you can turn these shapes over and trim away the excess green or leave it until you've finished your applique. I did one each way and noticed no difference.  There's a photo here of the backs of the basted pieces.

A word on clipping your seams ... since I'm not going to do a full blow-by-blow how to applique here, I'll just say this ... clip as seldom as possible. I know this may go against the grain of so many tutorials you've seen of hearts being clipped every 1/8" all the way around it. But you don't have to, trust me ... a heart needs one clip - in it's valley. Your melon's don't need a single clip. When do reverse applique on the melon you'll need a few more - I clipped six times. One in each "valley" end and twice on each side. Here's a pic where you can see me taking the first clip on a reverse-appliqued melon .. see the angle of my scissors? I'm not clipping straight into the seam. I'm clipping with the grain of the fabric between the threads to prevent as much fraying as possible.  Want to know more about applique but live too far to come visit me, then I recommend "The Applique Sampler" by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins as a jumping off point. Then take as many classes from as many different teachers you can - you'll be amazed how you pick up a bit here and a bit there until you find your style that fits you perfectly.

Geez, I almost forgot .. after you have all four quadrants appliqued, you need to trim them.  Use a square ruler and make sure that diagonal line runs right through the center of your melon. Trim each quadrant to 2-3/4" square (for me that meant the points were each 3/8" from the corner). Then hand or machine piece your 4 blocks together. Personally, I found it much easier to hand piece since the melons are just 1/8" from the edge.


Wow, so that was one long-winded post about this little block .. but I hope it helped and that my waffling on about things I think about helps you rather than gets in the way.

Please comment, ask questions or request a tutorial on a block that's stumping you. We look forward to hearing from you.

Oh, and here's a picture of the back of my block .. well, not my block .. I made this one for Maria but didn't tell her and so she made one too while she was on vacation. Check the flickr group tomorrow, I'll have a pic of my block up and a post here about how I "faked" the reverse applique on those other two blocks.

• Minka made this block and then went back and re-made it using a different technique, you can read more about it here.
• Anina, from That Quilt walks you through her approach here.

Back to Jane

I'm back from a fabulous two-week "staycation," which you can read about here and here.  The weather was crappy most of the time so I'm taking advantage of today's sun (and natural light) to do some stitching in the garden.  Maria asked me to explain "reverse" applique so I'm working on that for you all and will post a tutorial / FAQ at Jovita's Patchwork Atelier tomorrow.

Then be sure to pop in on Thursday to see a step-by-step explanation of how I made block A-7 Dad's Plaids using applique and reverse applique.  On Friday, I'll show you how I "faked" some reverse applique to do blocks B-1 and C-8.

Hunter's Moon

Dear Jane® book reference: Block A-3, page 18

Jovita's Method: hand pieced

My comments:  I looked at this block for a few minutes, first at the diagram and then at the picture of Jane's block and noticed that four of the seams were missing.  Once again, a choice.  With the seams, it makes hand piecing (which I think is what Jane did) much easier.  Without the seams, then applique makes sense.  It didn't take me long at all to decide to hand piece it and I'm glad I did because it went together like a charm - except for that wonky seam in the top left corner - must go see what I did funny there.

I did do a bit of preparation first though.  Here are the steps that I followed:

• transfered pattern to freezer paper and added one registration mark along each curved edge ... this is where I might have gone a tad wrong. 

On a Dutch site where a bunch of people were moaning about this block, ONE lady pointed out that the melons are not symmetrical!  What?? Yep, I checked - she is right. So in the diagram here I put two marks along the ring of the circle for you.  (I wish I had done this for me and am now wondering if my circle would look more circular.)  And of course if you are appliqueing the melons on top, this orientation would make a huge difference to the round effect you're trying to create.

• cut out the pattern pieces and iron them to the wrong side of my fabrics - remember to keep the grain of the fabric running in the right direction.
• I pieced the melon shapes first to the center shape.
• then pieced each side piece .. working around in a circle. when I got to the end of one I just picked up the next and kept going.
• once all four sides were complete I went back and sewed the diagonal corners. I did think about coming downstairs and sewing them by machine to make it quicker but I was settled so nicely into the sofa that I just kept going by hand.  

Here's a picture of the back so you can see how I pressed my seams.  I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures along the way, but next time I will ... I tend to do handwork in the evenings when the light for photographs is just too crappy.  And I know the colors don't seem great here, but it all fits into the scheme of my plan for this quilt.

Of course, there are OTHER OPTIONS for piecing this block, here are just a few while browsing on-line.



Many approach this block with applique, as suggested by www.dearjane.com's block tips.

Kate machine pieced the background and then hand-appliqued the melons on top.

It appears that Jayne appliqued first the white circle onto the (un-pieced) background and then appliqued the center piece on top of the white.

And Anina, does a fabulous job appliqueing this block, including reverse applique for that tricky "circle."

You might want to check out Karissa's block too, she just fudged the melons a bit so she could applique them all in one piece.  Carrie did the same thing.



And I just found this one .. I like this .. great compromise. Karen hand-pieced the melon piece to each quarter then appliqued that to the center piece - genius!!  A tiny bit of hand piecing - great for practice, no reverse applique and the best results I've seen so far :)