A Journey Begins!

Roxane of Scrap, Quilt and Stitch has done it again! Another great block to add to our De Deauville to Cape Cod quilt was sent to us last week. This is Block no 10...

As you can see, we had to sew the two backgrounds together before adding the flags. Simple but very nice!

One more block then the borders... I can't wait!

Meanwhile, I visited my sister and husband last weekend in Northern NB. We prepped fiddleheads her husband had picked for us to freeze... a big job but we will enjoy these in the dead of next winter. While there, I always take a stroll through his beautiful gardens whatever season and take lots of photos. To my surprise, he had these floats hanging from his trees... I just had to take photos... Lucky guy to have found these at a garage sale!

Before leaving on the weekend jaunt, I finished block no 3 Une Annee Dans Les Etoiles from Sylvie at Un Atelier A La Montagne . How cute is this block? I spilled the beans on this quilt too... this is for my niece Danielle whose mother, our oldest sister Viki, died 1 year ago in January. I am using clothing from Viki's closet to decorate these stars. Viki will always be the brightest star in the sky and I hope this will bring Danielle and her family joy at having this souvenir. My father's tie was used to make the bird house in block no 1; he had many, many bird houses around the ancestral home; the buttons are from Viki's dress shirts. 

Peppermint Place is back on the drawing board... or in this case the cutting table. I was not happy with the instructions for the borders. I tested my 1/4in seams throughout to make sure they were accurate but then the instructions tell you to trim to a certain size. Once that's done, you sew on the top and bottom borders but since you trimmed the blocks, the squares on point don't match up well nor do the bottom and top triangles look good because part of the tips have been cut off... 

 

My solution is to pick out the top and bottom borders and resew the strips so that the triangles aren't missing parts. It will make the borders narrower but I'll worry about that later. The center of the quilt is all sewn together and it looks great. This is one project that I will be thrilled to see done. It's been a joy to work on until the borders!

For the longest time, I've been in love with Dear Jane! Every year, I've contemplated beginning my own but the plans never worked out because of life's interruptions.

I've admired gorgeous and expertly crafted DJ quilts, at quilt shows and in museum exhibits etc. The following Dear Janes were hung at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver June 2009. We were in town for meetings and while my husband attended lectures, I wandered to the Capitol building to visit the quilt show. 

They were hung back to back and for the longest time I thought they were one quilt with 2 complete DJs front and back! But as you can see in the 2nd photo that is not the case! However they are still beautiful and have captured my heart once again.

So what's a poor girl pining for a Dear Jane of her own to do? One who is near completion of 2 BOMs? One who needs an evening project...

Of course I have to start one... my initial investment has arrived! I ordered the book, software and rulers. What I need to sort out is what fabrics to choose. I have a beautiful white tone on tone for the sashings and corner stones and I love the brightness of the two quilts above. I must go through my fabrics to see what will be suitable. I hope the software will be a great addition to the project; you don't need it but I hear it's quite helpful. 

My journey with Jane begins...

Toodles,

Lorette