Nine Dear Jane Triangles

I have been diligently working on my "Dear Jane" triangle blocks for the border. I've gotten 9 more finished and have 6 more partially done and waiting for handwork. Six more patterns have been drafted and fabrics selected. Many of them are paper pieced, but have many tiny pieces and it takes quiet a while to finish one block.

I just love playing in my boxes of vintage fabric. Most of it is from the 1920-1940s, some feed sacks, some skirt trimmings from dresses as the hemlines went up, and other pieces pre-cut into squares and hexagons that never made it into their quilts. If you look closely at the blue fabric, you can see the flowers have legs and arms and are dancing figures. The black, white & pink fabric is just plain fun. I've made 2 large quilt tops from my vintage collection, and several smaller wall hangings, and I am running out of larger scraps to make the triangles. The triangles take more fabric than the 5" blocks, this is one of the reasons I wasn't sure about making the fancy border. Besides knowing all the extra work involved in doing 52 triangles and 4 corner kite shapes. I think I've gotten a good start on the triangles this week, and I'm almost ready to drop them and move on to something more artsy. Still 10 days of vacation left! Whoopee!

I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click on the badge in the right hand column and see what other talented textile artists have been doing this week.

Kahlua/Brandy Truffles

A few of my dark chocolate Kahlua/Brandy truffles, there are more that I'm still rolling into balls. They won't win any beauty contests, perfect balls are not happening, they are too gooey to roll nicely. Of course these are the 3rd batch, the first two magically disappeared! The 1st was just brandy, whew! strong, the 2nd just Kahlua, rich but mild, the 3rd is a combo of Kahlua and brandy, like the 3 bears, these are just right. I've given away most of them, but I sneak at least one every evening, maybe after lunch, before lunch, every time I walk through the dinning room is more like it. EVERYONE HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY!! I'm going to be doing lots of sewing, being off of work for 2 weeks this time of year, is shear luxury.

Dear Jane Triangles

As much as I like Art Quilting, VERY MUCH, I also love traditional quilting. I recently saw a new Dear Jane group on Facebook, and they inspired me to make the border triangles. I have all the blocks done, but not sashed, and I was going to pass on the fancy border. A lot of the border triangles can be done with paper piecing, but many need hand sewn details, diamonds, and football shapes. My hands are hurting more than ever, after 2 years of being good enough to hand sew again. So I don't know when I'll get all the little details done. The piecing, I am doing with the sewing machine, people who are hand piecing their Dear Janes are gluttons for punishment. There are many talented people who are doing theirs by hand tho. I have 2 weeks off for Christmas break, so this is a good time to work on them. I finished up 9 blocks so far, and have several others, just waiting for the hand sewing.

There are 52 triangle blocks, and 4 corner kite shapes. The fabric I am using is all vintage from the 1920-1940s, as well as all the solids. I have only used new muslin for 2 blocks, when I did not have a suitable solid. I don't have any delusions about getting all the triangles done in 2 weeks, but as many as I can, just to get a good start on them. Then I can work on the applique when my hands feel better. The last photo is my fabric selections and patterns drawn out for the next set of blocks. Everyone have a wonderful holiday time, and a happy New Year. I'm going back to work on making Dark Chocolate Kahlua Truffles.