209 Days Till Christmas

Poor Sweet Ginger is wishing she had an early Christmas quilt to lie on.


So I'm making her this one. The fabric is Christmas Village from Clothworks, decorated with stash fabrics; pattern is Prairie Window. Has anybody made this pattern? I've always admired it and finally have one in Real Life.

Dear Jane block....

Those Little Blocks

EQ promised that it would print out this central portion of Dear Jane B-11 at the smaller size that I wanted but it still worked out to being too big for B-11:

Set this way, it is vaguely similar to M-8, so this has become a stand-in for that one. Trying again on B-11, I came up with this one:

We just had a guest at our Little Quilts Stars Across the Garden class last Tuesday, our favorite Wanda Hizer (see the Little Quilts blog), who encouraged us in our applique development. She reminded me of that clever way to knot your needle at the point of the needle so that the infernal silk thread does not come undone, so I picked up my spool of silk thread, which had lain, rejected and despised, on the floor for many months, a helpless object of play for any passing cat. Managed to applique the circle with the silk thread, which is now set back on the desk and is my friend again. Thank you, Wanda!

...later that same day...
Got three more Dear Jane blocks done:

Dearest Jane and the Trunk for It (Her)

One of the three foundation pieces for the central portion of DJ's B10. These things are microscopic. Can I really do this? Note the nervous bite taken out of the pencil.

Channeling "miniature", the block was created.

It's beginning to appear that Dearest Jane might have been quite the little devil. Some of these blocks are positively devious. I keep imagining her rocking out on her front porch in the early evening, devising yet another mathematical puzzle to create in fabric. She could have been a mathematician at a New England college, confounding everyone around her with yet another new postulate or theorem.

Bought this 1870s or so trunk for $18. It has a brass nameplate! Indicating that the owner was from Lehighton, Pa. How divine is that? Maybe when I get it fixed up (and the interior lined with acidfree paper or fabric), I will store Dear Jane in it. I mean my quilt of course.

Tiny Strips are Good for Consuming Stash

I pulled out every suitable fabric from the scrap basket to make 1x4" strips...

to put together Pick Up Sticks for the Jo's Little Women class:

Being delighted with these little 3" squares, I decided to use them for the setting for the set of 17 Jo's Little Women Club swap blocks:

and I may add more of the same for a scalloped border:

This is quite the stash busting project. Only now I'm three blocks behind on Dear Jane :-).

Block a Block

Have been making blocks for Stars Across the Garden #1 and #2 and Dear Jane:






on my Stars Across the Garden #1:

Son, home from school: "(doubtfully) Daring, Mom" [and he's color-blind].
Me: "(happy) Wonderfully Pennsylvania."

on my Lori Smith:

Son: "Isn't it kind of plain?"
Me: "(blissfully) Totally eighteenth-century."