Still Playing with Vintage Fabrics

Since my hands have been feeling better, I have gotten some much needed finishes on some old applique projects. I appliqued the last four blocks of the vintage Dresden Plate quilt, the only thing I allow myself to add to my vintage projects is muslin. A friend gave me the plates and a pile of extra wedges, I made enough additional plates to have a 4 x 5 block quilt top. The blocks are 16" square so they made a good size top, any more border and it would be too big and out of proportion. It really strained my vintage stash of fabric to get the long sashing strips, quiet a few of them are made with sewn scraps. I am also piecing together my "Dear Jane" border triangles. It is also all vintage fabric, I used the pastel solids to set with the pieced triangles. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, the main blocks are all quilted in three sections, all in the ditch, whew, what a LOT of quilting. Now I'll quilt the triangle borders and be ready to put it all together. I am thinking about what my next art quilt will be, I have so many ideas, I just need to settle down and do something. Also the Fyber Cafe ladies are coming over to my house next week to do some ice dyeing, so I have been cleaning up the backyard.

Putting it All Together

Rows A-E starting to go together.

After a hectic weekend for my husband's funeral, I was finally able to relax. All the family had been up from California, as the last left on Wednesday, I took a long nap. Thursday was busy doing NOTHING, and by Friday I was ready to get back to my sewing machine. I had planned on putting together the Dear Jane blocks during spring break, but I worked in the yard and cleaned house instead. I reclaimed from a lost box, the 1920's solid green yardage. I had several pieces, the one large enough to do the sashing with was a bit darker than I remembered. But it is a nice neutral, but a little on the gray side. It tones down some of the brighter fabrics, contrasts well with the darker ones, but blends too much with the mid-tone fabrics. I have a very large piece of an even darker green that I will use for the backing.

All the solid and print fabric is from the 1920-40's. I decided that I would try to machine quilt it in sections, on my home sewing machine. So I put together rows A-E, F-H, and I-M, I think these are a manageable size. I will figure out how to add the triangle border later. It may need some serious hand work and fudging to get in the corner kites.

Dear Jane by the Numbers

I spent last weekend, taking out each block and counting the number of pieces that I used. My count at the moment is 4687. Your count my be different than mine, it depends on how you drafted your templates and the sewing techniques you used. In several blocks, I had to sew scraps together to make a large enough piece of fabric to cut out the shape. I counted this as two pieces. Jane must have counted all the sashing, setting triangles and scallops, her total is 5603 pieces, and she embroidered it on the quilt, very unusual for quilts in that time frame. I found one mistake that I made, I left off a paper pieced triangle on the triangle block, left side, 10th from top. I left it in, I'm not going to fix it. Does anyone have a template for the scallops around the edge? It is not in my book. I don't have the CD with templates.
Row I has the fewest pieces, 271, row L has the most, 332.
5 is the lowest number of pieces per block.
Two blocks have 49 pieces.
One block has 50 pieces.
One corner has 68 pieces.
There will be 56 setting triangles, and 64 scallops and 4 corner scallops.

The Last DJ Blocks

Finally, the last triangle block, it was all applique, so it took awhile. My hands were doing ok at this point, they did not hurt much.

This corner kite has 68 pieces. I really had to scrounge my fabric stash to find enough vintage print, that had a small enough pattern, for these tiny pieces. It went together easier than I thought it would. I used traditional piecing, rotary cutting each piece.

With a darker rose colored embroidery floss, I stitched, "All vintage fabric, from 1920 to 1940's." On the bottom tip of the block I am going to add the total number of pieces.

I added blue and yellow embroidery to the signature block. At the bottom I stitched "Original Quilt by Jane A. Blakley Stickle" and in the bottom petal the date "1863." Around the top star "Reproduced" in the star "BY" and "Amy Marie Cruger Vetter" around the top of the flower petals, and 2015 in the top petal.

I really like that I got all that information on the one block. My spacing wasn't great, even though I wrote it out on paper and pinned it in place to see how it fit. My embroidery stitches, kind of stretched it out, and I ran out of room to stitch. But I am finally done with all the blocks, triangles and corners!!!! YEA!! I plan on piecing it all together with sashing, during spring break. I have about 8 yards of a vintage light apple green, hopefully that will be enough for the sashing and backing. I am not sure yet if I will use that on the setting triangles or vintage prints, which I am quickly running out of. It may be a huge challenge to cut 56 triangles out of vintage prints, and I worry about the contrast, and will it be too busy. Thank you for following this journey, it has been at least three years, maybe 5, to make all this.

More & More Dear Janes

Poppy inspects the next set of completed Dear Jane blocks, for piecing excellence. Nine more triangles are finished, and my holiday break is over. Only a few more to do, but they seam to be getting more difficult. I am having a hard time finding scraps that are big enough to do the larger triangles. Many of my scraps are larger prints and they are hard to cut up for such tiny pieces.

Originally, I had quiet a lot of this Dutch girl fabric, but after 3 large vintage quilt projects, I am just about out. Only tiny bits remain. I sorted the two boxes of scraps, into large pieces, pieces that will barely fold up, small bits maybe 4 to 6" per side, and even smaller bits. It is fun to just play with the vintage fabric, fold it, caress it and appreciate just how old it is. Some of my favorite pieces are already used up and gone, just a tiny snippet remains.

All three of these blocks are done with paisley fabric, the left is light and airy with a white background. The middle is a border type print and reminds me a Jinny Beyer fabrics. The right, is a dense pink and fuchsia print, but it is so tight, it is hard to tell it is a paisley.

During the week, I managed to piece two blocks and finish the applique on two others.

The fabric for the snowball corner kite is an Indian print, with moccasins, drums, and pots. It was tight fussy cutting the designs and some just barely fit. I pieced it by sewing together 3 blocks and setting in Y seams with half square triangles. It worked pretty well, except the bias was at the edge of the block and really stretched. Last I added four corner yellow triangles and finished the block. I have only a few more to do, 2 of the kites are done, just waiting for applique, and 3 more triangles are not finished yet. So I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! This has been quiet a project, I knew if I stopped at this point I wouldn't get back to them for months. So it was best to keep plugging away, and just do it. Next post----The LAST few triangles and kites. Yea!! Almost done!!

Ten More Dear Janes

I'm still working away at more triangle blocks for the "Dear Jane" border. It is getting to be rather a chore, but I do a little bit every day, and I'm amazed how much I got done. I have 28 triangles finished! Whew! Since December 20, that's almost 3 per day. There are also about 10 that are half finished and waiting for some hand work. If I get them done, maybe I'll spend spring break working on the sashing and getting it all put together. I think I started 3 or 4 years ago with the blocks. Not too bad, for a project of this size! I have not laid all the blocks out to see them, I don't have a big enough floor space. I did take a break and work on a more artsy project this week. Check out the next post.

Closeup views, so you can see the vintage fabric.

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.

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.

The Last One!

I did it!! I finished the last "Dear Jane" block, #G-6 the star in a star, even tho the tag says G8. It had tiny pieces, but it really wasn't that difficult to sew. I had more problems with some of the other blocks, that had diamond shapes, or inset squares. I don't think I'm going to do the triangles for the border right now, I do have other things to do. I will get out a sheet and lay them all out on the living room floor, so I can see if I want to keep them in order, or swap some of the blocks around, for balance or contrast. Deciding on the fabric to use for the sashing will be the next challenge, and getting them all sewn together. Again, rejoice, I AM DONE!! There are a total of 169 4 1/2" blocks, and 3478 pieces, so far. With the border triangles, Jane used 5602 pieces, and proudly embroidered it on the signature corner, with the date 1863. Going through all my blocks and counting the pieces, I found two duplicates, a waste of effort, and one that was missing, so I quickly made it up, an easy checker board pattern. DONE!

Tricky Jane Blocks

I have finished 10 more Dear Jane blocks, some of the ones I had skipped because they were difficult, or had too many small parts. I was right! Some of them were very difficult, odd angles, and weird sewing steps, and small pieces, but I kept at it. I did find enough fabric, probably not the best choices for some of the blocks, contrast has been a problem. Most of my fabric is mid range colors, and my solids are pastel or medium values, so I had to vary colors to improve contrast. Only one more to go, the star with a small "Ohio Star" in the center.

Dear Jane Update

After all the work on the "River" piece, I needed a break from the intense quilting, so I worked on my "Dear Jane" blocks. Just straight sewing on the sewing machine, with bits of hand applique. The blocks are all made from vintage fabric that I have collected from garage sales, and antique shops. I managed to do at least two a day for a week, and only have 8 more to do. Of course they are the most difficult ones, that I skipped before, and now have to make myself do them. I am having trouble finding enough large pieces of fabric, most of what I have is small scraps, and I have used a lot of it already. I am trying not to duplicate the fabrics, but I did on several of the blocks. There are a total of 169 blocks, so I've done about 160, 5" blocks. The next question is, do I want to make the 52 pieced and applique triangles for the border? After looking at the patterns, most of them can be done in paper piecing techniques, as they are odd shapes to fit in a long triangle. The paper piecing would make them quicker and easier, but still a lot of work.

I would love to be able to say, "I have done them all" but it's a lot more work, and I'm not sure I have enough larger scraps to make them. Re-reading the "Dear Jane" book, I noticed she finished her quilt in 1863, so 2013 would be the 150th anniversary, it would be neat to finish mine this year. I would have to do 2 triangles a week for the next 6 months, or 4 a week for the next 3 months. Am I Crazy??? I do have other things to do. I always knew this would be a long term project, a few blocks at a time, now is not the time to get fanatical about it, just because of the date. I have one Oregon friend who has all the blocks and about half the triangles done, and my California friend is getting close to 100 blocks done. maybe I should talk to them about inspiration.

Dear Jane on the Kitchen Floor

the top pic is A-1 on the bottom left corner, 1-8, the bottom pic is the right hand half of the blocks.
Below... all my finished "Dear Jane" blocks laid out on the kitchen floor.
At the top left is A-1, with the rows going across 1-13. Some blocks are missing, because they need applique, or they were just too complicated, and I will try them later, when I can really concentrate on each individual block.

My friend Sue came to visit from California, she has been working on the "Dear Jane" blocks too, so we had a chat and show and tell. We went thru my vintage fabric stash and I shared some with her. Her Jane quilt uses older reproductions from the civil war era, and I had some "Smithsonian" repro fabric that I gave her, and some of my vintage stuff for a tumbler pattern she is making with vintage fabrics. Since I had my vintage stuff out, I decided to go ahead and make some more blocks. I drafted about a half dozen more patterns, and started to select fabrics and cut them out. Quiet a few are applique, and needed some piecing first, to have a base for the applique. They ended up in a stack to be a "take along" project, to be finished whenever. I pieced about 8 more blocks, some easy, some not so much. Considering their 4 1/2" size, they are a lot more complicated and detailed then I thought they'd be. But I did not skip any of the tricky ones, I preserved and did them all! I am over half way done!! yeah!! But then I realized I still had 70 more blocks to do! Yikes! All the work I have done and I still have lots more pages in the book. I do love going through my vintage fabric, selecting just the right pieces, and hoping I have enough of a scrap to do the block with. I have come up short several times and had to piece the fabric together, to get a piece big enough to cut out. But this is ok, 'cause they did that back in the "olden days" too. I can see in the photographs where Jane had to piece a scrap together, to make the pattern piece. I also made a couple of blocks with more than one print and one solid. Two matching, close enough prints, make a good block, but I try not to do this unless I have too, or a piece is too good to pass up, and I just don't have enough of it.

Dear Jane Blocks

Here is a photo of about 48 Dear Jane blocks that I have made so far, the drive has faded, the creativity got hijacked, my attention wandered! It is a good start, I had to clean my sewing room for some reason and they got put aside. I'll get back to them someday, like many other forgotten projects, I do drag them out occasionally and work on them until my attention gets pulled somewhere else. I am amazed I got as far as I did. I do love the vintage fabrics, that was the most fun of the project, it wasn't creative tho, just work, work, work. A challenge that spurred me on just so far.

Dear Jane, A Few Blocks

Here is a photo of my "Dear Jane" blocks in progress, I have over 50 of them done. They are in 1920-30's fabrics from my stash, the solid colors are vintage too. I just keep plodding along, finding a new scrap for each block, a few at a time. I did some applique blocks while I was in California, so that got about 8 done. I just don't "Feel" like doing much of anything right now, so I just do another, and another, and another of these things. They are addicting, but I'm not real jazzed up by them either, each one can take up to an hour, cause they sure aren't simple, even though they are small. Some of them are very challenging, and about 5 so far, I don't even want to try. Playing with the vintage fabric has been the most fun, I do love the colors and fun patterns! Only 115 more to do, so I am almost 1/3 of the way done!

P.S. Dear Jane

For all you non-quilters, "Dear Jane" is a quilt book with a beautiful quilt made by Jane Stickle, in 1863. It has 225 blocks, 4 1/2" square, plus a bunch of border triangles. It is apparently going to more challenging then I thought it would be. I have lots of vintage fabric to use, which is perfect for this project, although the original was done with civil war fabrics. It has become a quilting phenomenon, as people try to make all the blocks, groups and clubs have formed to try to make this quilt. I finally got hold of a copy of the book, but alas, it did not come with the CD of templates and patterns to print out. So my drafting is accurate, but I think it was my seam allowance that screwed up the first few blocks I tried. We'll see if I have the stamina to keep going. I tend to get distracted with new projects, but I do come back to "in progress" items and spend time on them too. As long as I am working on finishing something, I don't count it as wasted time, to spend the weekend on an old project and still not get it finished. I am making progress, and I do finish my UFO(unfinshed objects) projects eventually. My New Years Resolution is always to finish several old projects, and to finish any smaller new projects I start, this has done me well in the past years to get a lot of things finished. That's why I don't like to commit to doing anything for other people any more, as I have plenty of my own things to do!!!!!

Dear Jane!

Dear Jane, Are you certifiably crazy, making all those little tiny blocks? I tried several and they all came out too big. I measured accurately, my piece sizes were correct, and my seam allowance was 1/4", so how come the blocks are a half inch too big? That's a lot of difference when you start with such small pieces to begin with. I tried to be a perfectionist, I really did! Most of my points matched, and I trimmed tails, and squared up each section too. I used my collection of vintage fabrics from 1920-1930's and matching solids from the same era. I might have to use some muslin too, but I thought I'd try it with the colored solids first, but contrast is a problem. Everything is so pastel to start with, I had to reverse several blocks with the print and solids to get enough contrast. They look good, but I sure don't want to have to redo them to the correct size. Even if I make two blocks each week, it will take two years to do them all, and I doubt I'll keep up that pace. So this is a long term project, that may get done some day. Like my 1" strips "Log Cabin" blocks, it's almost done, but it has taken me 30 years of quilting and scrap collecting to get this far. But I do have lots of vintage fabrics I would like to use up some day. I put a little "ducky" print in the center of the circle on the A-3 block, cute! It is frustrating to start out with a problem like this, I think I will have to increase my seam allowance just a hair, to get it right, and probably have to redo the blocks right.