Quilting Lady Jane

It's been a long time since I've posted about Lady Jane. Those hexies just kind of took over. Last week I focused on hand quilting again and made it across the width of the quilt! 

Here are photos from left to right.

These darker gray fabrics stitcher harder than the lighter colors. I think it has to do with with the white designs.

This gray leaf fabric stitches the hardest of all!

As usual, you can't see the quilting on the floral border but it does show on the dark outside border.

I've rolled and this is the next swath to be quilted. You can see after I finish the quilting on this churn dash row, the next section is the checkerboard border before the outside border. I'm getting close to the finish! This picture shows the true colors of the fabrics in Lady Jane.

Here is a link to the Lady Jane pattern.

Here is a link to all my Lady Jane posts. Here is a link to the first post about quilting Lady Jane. I see that she went into the quilting frame in January. I haven't been quilting her as long as I thought I had been. 

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday Musings

Lady Jane is a Complete Finish!

I started piecing Lady Jane early in 2021 and finished the flimsy in October that year. She went into the quilting frame in January this year and now the quilting is finished!

As you can tell when you look at the pictures, Lady Jane is not closely quilted. 

Here is a closer picture of the applique center.

Some of those gray squares have a green tint, they look normal in reality.

Here are photos of the square blocks.

I can't get a good picture of the backing fabric so I googled it. Here is a link to a picture of Classic by Oasis Fabrics 18-401. Scroll down a little on the page, it's the large picture. Just so you know, I purchased the fabric at Calico Point, a local fabric store only 3 miles from my house. And I definitely did NOT pay $19/yard for the fabric, I won't spend that much. I think I paid $13/yard for my backing.

Our daughter was visiting last week so I recruited the farmer and her as quilt holders. The farmer does not enjoy this at all! After they were finished, he walked around the yard looking for a place to put a clothesline for displaying quilts so he won't have to do it. Hopefully he has a plan.

I do need to add a sleeve to Lady Jane then she'll be on display in our home. Yes, Lady Jane is staying here with me. Someday she'll be gifted to one of our granddaughters.

For the last time for this quilt, here is a link to the Lady Jane pattern.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday Musings, To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Peacock Party, Whoop Whoop Party, Finished or Not  Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Lady Jane Again!

My computer problems have been solved. My computer was 11 years old and didn't have the capacity to update anymore. I have a new computer now.  There is a lot of blogging catch-up to do but we're leaving this evening to travel to Maryland to spend Thanksgiving with our oldest son and his family. (This is the Pennsylvania family who have now moved to Maryland.) The next post will be next Sunday.

Lady Jane is now displayed on a wall! Aren't blue, white and gray quilts striking?

I washed the quilt after she had the binding attached to remove the markings. Washing made her do some puckering. I thought the center of this flower was interesting. 

 

Another picture, because I can.

Grandmother's flower garden quilt has been moved to another wall.

After Christmas, I'm going have a blue & white display on the rafters.

In the last post about Lady Jane, I realized I neglected give you the finished size, she measures 87" by 93", a perfect size for my wall space.

She is hand quilted with a wool batt. The fabrics were a variety of blues I had in my stash. Click here for the Lady Jane finished post to see more pictures.

Here is a link to the Lady Jane pattern.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Handmade Monday, Craftastic Monday, Sew & Tell

Lady Jane Applique Finish

This week was about appliqueing leaves on Lady Jane. Once I started I just couldn't stop until they were all attached, the applique on the center is finished!

Sorry the background has a yellow tint, it's not like that in real life.

All the applique I completed so far had been by the back basting method. Here is a link to a YouTube tutorial on back basting. My guild had a lesson on back basting many years ago, that was how I learned.

When I applique leaves, I don't use the back basting method, I use the freezer paper method.

For the leaves on Lady Jane, I decided to use a product I purchased years ago for another project which didn't happen. I'm always concerned when a product is 'iron on', they don't seem to work well for me but this one did. I was very pleased! The fusible stuck and added the stability I need to turn under the edge of the leaves. The starch will wash out, leaving a soft interior.

When I hand quilt this quilt, I will stitch in the ditch around the leaves. This product is not hand quilting friendly if you want to stitch in the applique.

Since the center is finished, this project is going to go into time out for several weeks until I am less busy. It won't take long to sew all the parts together for this quilt, the pieced blocks are pieced, I just need to trim the center, add the border and cut the gray squares. I've also found the perfect fabric for the outside border.

The Lady Jane pattern can be found here.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away

Lady Jane, Starting the Applique

A friend and I spent a day together in June working on quilting projects. I had the center of Lady Jane traced onto the backside of the fabric so I took it along. At Lori's, I back basted stems so I could start applique as soon as I finished blue Stars Around the Garden.

Several weeks later, Elaine invited a group of us from the guild to get together and do some hand work while visiting. Of course I took Lady Jane.

The stems are all completed so now the flowers are started. i was going to take a picture of just the stems but I forgot.

The background fabric is an 'old' white with tiny gray dots.

I see on other blogs that some appliquers stick all the pieces on their background fabric with glue stick, I don't know how they keep pieces from falling off, I just work at my applique one piece at a time and eventually it is finished.

Click here for a link to the Lady Jane pattern.

Here is an update on the Quilt Garden in Wakarusa. The flowers are growing! And here is a link to a post about the Quilt Garden in June. You can learn more about the Quilt Gardens along the Heritage Trail.

Linking to Patchwork & Quilts, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday,  Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Handmade Monday, BOM's Away

Starting Lady Jane

I loved the Lady Jane pattern the first time I saw it. Blues are my favorite color and blue and white quilts are my favorite quilts. Nanette must have thought of me when she saw the pattern because she kindly gifted it to me. Thanks Nanette!

I pulled fabrics immediately after receiving the pattern. The blues are more brighter blues but I had plenty of blues in my stash to choose from. This pattern also has grays, I pulled what I had then purchased a few more pieces when I visited a fabric store.

I wanted to start Lady Jane immediately but that didn't happen, too many other projects already in progress, too many other projects that were a higher priority.

However I'm glad to say Lady Jane's time has come. The first block has been pieced.

You know me, I have to make at least one change. The quilt pattern finishes 76" by 90", I want my quilt larger. Adding another row of blocks all the way around the quilt won't work, then it will be too big. I enlarged the size of the pieces in the churn dash block. My blocks end up 8" pieced, 7.5" finished.

This is my prototype block. I made just one to make sure my measurements were correct and they were. Now I need to cut all the other pieces and make 29 more blocks. This is a busy time of year for me. Once I have the prepping completed, I'll be able to sit and sew when I have available time. Sitting and sewing all day isn't going to be happening for awhile, summer is busy here on the farm.

I've cut the background fabric for the center applique but it's not prepped yet. That will happen soon, I hope. I'm using the applique as an incentive to finish the hand quilting on my blue Stars Around the Garden quilt. I'm going to take a break from hand quilting for the rest of summer and applique instead.

What are your quilting plans for the summer?

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Stitch, Sew & Show, Put Your Foot Down

Quilting Lady Jane

This post is about quilting the applique center of Lady Jane. This first picture is the right side of the medallion.

I've made the pictures extra large so you can see more detail. All the applique is stitched in the ditch and the background is quilted with hanging diamonds.

The center of the medallion. The pins help me keep track of where to start quilting.

And this is the left side of the medallion. You can't see the texture of the quilting. It does puff up nicely with wool batting.

The pattern for Lady Jane can be found here. For more details about my Lady Jane, click here.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell,  Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday Musings

Quilting Lady Jane

Even though I post about other handwork projects sometimes on Sunday, I'm continually hand quilting Lady Jane. 

I've finished the center medallion section! 

Here are pictures going from the right side of the quilt to the left side.

The center medallion is finished! I've used a wool batt in this quilt, the texture feels so nice when I gently move my fingers across the quilted sections.

The left side of the quilt.

It's hard to really see the quilting except on the background fabric of the medallion and the darker blue borders, sorry.

Click here for a link to the Lady Jane pattern. I do wish my quilt was larger. The pattern has 3 rows of churn dash blocks on the top and bottom of the medallion. I don't know why I didn't add those rows to this quilt?

And here is a link to the first post I wrote about quilting Lady Jane.

This post may be the only post this week. Spring is finally here and I'm enjoying the outdoors. My sewing mojo seems to have disappeared for now.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday Musings

Lady Jane is in the Frame!

The hand quilting frame is set up and ready to go. Lady Jane is the fortunate lady to be the first quilt hand quilted in the new house.

I'm being careful to only quilt for an hour a day until my fingers are used to quilting again.

This quilt is not going to be closely quilted and the quilting is rather simple. I love this border fabric but you don't see the stitching very well. Diagonal lines have been marked 2" apart so progress is fast.

People always ask for more information so here it is. I'll use this post as a reference for future questions. 

The wool batting is Hobbs Tuscany Collection. I've used this brand in several quilts, it hand stitches very nice. 

The quilting thread is YLI hand quilting thread. Even though this spool holds 1000 yards of thread, there is no way there will be that much quilting on this quilt. I'm not even going to keep track of the yardage.

My favorite brand of hand quilting needles are DMC needles, size 7. This is a larger size than most hand quilters use but I just can't manipulate smaller needles, they flip in my fingers! I'm able to quilt small stitches with the size 7.

I buy several packages at a time and have always purchased them at my local fabric store. They didn't have any the last time I was there. I asked if they were out or if they weren't going to carry them anymore. They said DMC was discontinuing manufacturing hand quilting needles. I still have several packages that aren't opened, I'm going to make my needles last as long as I can. I don't know what brand I'll use when they're gone.

For backing fabric, I selected this blue/gray whole cloth fabric which doesn't show the stitches that well but I liked it. I always buy my backing fabric at my local fabric store. I like to be able to see and touch the backing. 

I have ordered backing fabric from online stores before but it always has so much sizing on it. You can't possibly hand quilt it without washing it! The sizing doesn't really wash out, at least it doesn't for me. The fabric feels slimy while it's still damp. I don't like that! 

Surprisingly, the backing fabrics at my local store are better prices than online stores, they're of good quality too.

Here is a link to the Lady Jane pattern.

There will be an upcoming post about installing the quilt into the frame.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell,  Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday This 'N That,  Monday Musings

More Lady Jane Blocks

 There are a total of 16 Lady Jane blocks pieced. They sew fast since all the pieces were cut ahead of time. Just 14 more to go. The background fabric does not have a yellow tint like the picture shows.

The blocks are not trimmed yet. One time I read on someone's blog that if you sew accurately you won't need to trim the blocks after you sew them.

That is true but I have never had blocks turn out perfect. I'd rather have some extra to trim off than have the block be too small.

Here is the pattern for Lady Jane.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Stitch, Sew & Show, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down

Another Week Quilting Lady Jane

Another week of hand quilting Lady Jane and I am that much closer to a finish.

First I'll start off with a picture of the row after quilting. This row was the last row of churn dash blocks.

I am enjoying quilting again after taking several weeks off.

Here are are closeup pictures from the left to the right.

The quilt has been rolled and this is the next section to be quilted. I will stitch in the ditch along the bottom of the blue sashing then roll again so the sashing is closer to the bottom. If it's too far down, I'll have trouble stitching it horizontally.

Last week I was asked if I have a problem with a stationery quilting frame since I can't turn the frame. This is how I've always hand quilted. Occasionally I'll quilt a small project in a hoop and it is handy to turn it around but I'm used to my frame. Basically I can quilt every direction I need to, that just comes with experience.

Here is a link to the Lady Jane pattern.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday Musings

Lady Jane Blocks

The last 14 blocks for Lady Jane have been pieced. As you can see, I'm using a variety of background fabrics. The fabric that reads 'white' is a very light gray fabric.

All I need to do now is finish the applique center and I can sew the quilt together! I'm planning on the applique taking the rest of the summer.

The pattern for Lady Jane is available here.

I'm sure everyone is aware that as of July 1, Feedburner will no longer be available to receive blog posts by email. A lot of bloggers are scurrying to change and I've even read of one blogger who will no longer be blogging.

I'm going to keep blogging but I haven't switched to a new service. My daughter will be visiting in a month or so, I'll let her do the technical work. Which means, if you follow me by email, you won't be receiving my posts after today.

You'll need to either bookmark my blog and check for new posts on Sunday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday or look for me at one of the linky parties.

Update: I just had a follower send me the information that my email deliveries are sent by Google, not Feedburner so I'll see what happens. If my followers still receive my posts by email, I'll put the follow by email link back up. *** I just had another person comment that Feedburner is Google. We'll all find out what happens July 1st!

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Stitch, Sew & Show, Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down

Lady Jane

I'm working on Lady Jane again. I have altered the pattern to make the quilt larger. I made this decision after I had already cut the fabric for the center applique. Fortunately I always cut the fabric for applique background fabric larger than what the pattern requires. I trimmed the applique center to 34" and added a 2" finished dark blue border. 

The pattern has a striped border and I actually bought a stripe fabric to use. When I laid the cut strips next to the applique, I didn't like how it looked so I just used the blue fabric.

I had puffed the circles with batting while appliqueing them. It did make trimming the center a little challenging.

The churn dash blocks on my quilt finish at 7.5". The pattern has 3 rows of blocks on the top and bottom of the center. I only have 2 rows each. If I had added those two rows, the quilt would be 15" longer than wide. I don't want a quilt that long.

I could have added a bottom row of pieced blocks and squares but I didn't want to make more blocks.

Instead I pieced a checkerboard border and another strip of the blue to add a total of 8". The center now measures 71" by 79".

Most of the fabrics I used for my quilt came from my stash. I didn't order the fabrics used in the original quilt. The square blocks are all gray fabrics. Some of the gray I had in my stash, I did purchase a few others to have more variety. I didn't add any dark grays, I wanted to keep it light and happy.

The next step is to add the outside borders. 

The pattern for Lady Jane can be found here.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Stitch Sew & Show,  Wednesday Wait Loss, Put Your Foot Down

Quilting Lady Jane

Another swath hand quilted across Lady Jane. This time some of the applique center has been quilted.

Quilting has started in the center medallion. The bottom leaves and the light blue weird shaped leaves have been stitched in the ditch. The background is quilted with a hanging diamond design. And yes, I know, the spacing isn't perfect. This quilt will end up with one of the grandchildren, they won't care.

I decided not to quilt the blue border around the center medallion.

This is the left side of the quilt.

This is the right side of the quilt. The center medallion photo was supposed to be have been in between these two pictures but Blogger didn't want them that way.

We received 6" or more of snow Friday afternoon and evening, wet heavy snow, perfect for grandchildren sledding. This picture looks toward the southwest from the front of our house.

And this picture toward the southeast from our house.

And here is a picture of the north side of our house. 

        

Here is a link to the Lady Jane pattern.

Linking to Kathys Slow Stitching Sunday, Stitching Stuff, Oh Scrap, Sew & Tell,  Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, Craftastic Monday, Monday This 'N That,  Monday Musings