I have started a quilt notebook upon the suggestion of Lori at Inbox Jaunt. Here is my first page, showing ideas for the cheddar bowtie blocks I am again working on. There are three possible layouts shown here. The bottom left photo is from Bonnie Hunter's web page with the directions for the blocks. The lower right hand one is a layout formed when grouping the blocks on the floor for a photo. The cheddar patches form a snowball effect and you kind of lose the bowties in the process. The yellow and white sketch at the top is one that I'm leaning towards. Alex Anderson displayed a bowtie quilt with this zig zag setting when she appeared on the Hallmark channel's Home and Family program. (See it on YouTube). This setting is less busy than either of the other two and since it bumps up the size of the blocks a bit with the square in a square setting, it means I have to make fewer blocks. Win-win!
I am still unearthing from the underground of my brain - haven't had the courage to open all the bags and boxed stashed all over my sewing room - more UFOs. I added two more to my list. One is a Dear Jane quilt and the other is a signature quilt from a Jo Morton pattern. Dear Jane is a project that I visit from time to time and will eventually get finished. The Jo Morton signature quilt - with signatures from Ricky Tims and Justin Schults no less! - is on the back burner for the foreseeable future. It is done in Jo Morton and other Civil War era repros. As you can no doubt tell from this blog, those are not exactly my signature colors. Probably the reason I lost interest.
The Dear Jane was started in Civil War fabrics as well and when I got tired of the muddy looking prints, put it in time out. A friend revived her Dear Jane project last year and I went along with her in an attempt to finish mine. That was a lesson in futility as she had already completed far more blocks than I had and did not make the triangle blocks that make up the border. I performed CPR on my project by switching over to the brighter colors that I love. I am NOT remaking the 20 or so blocks done in Civil War fabrics, however. They will be sprinkled throughout the quilt which will, of course, mean that the layout of the blocks will not follow the "traditional" layout of blocks as set out in the Dear Jane book. I can live with that.
The top row above are made with Civil War fabrics. The bottom row are made with modern fabrics.
Did you really "forget" that you had started a Dear Jane? I think that would haunt my sleep!
ReplyDeleteThat's still not an easy setting for the bowties, the zigzag, but it is nice to do something different!
You've been making me think of a new plan for my UFOs too. I seem to break each plan as soon as I make it!
good to see you are using your quilt notebook. I too have the Dear Jane book but so far have not been able to work out how to do the blocks, I have recently discovered the link with the instructions but still not sure if I can tackle it, need to get a bit more experience
ReplyDeleteYou are so smart to rethink your approach to your Dear Jane quilt and renew your enthusiasm in completing it--that's a tack I should consider as I assiduously avoid confronting my older UFOs! Congratulations on your quilt notebook! The page you shared and your bowtie quilt design look great--
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