I saw this block about 2 weeks ago and have not been able to get it out of my mind. With the many, many blocks in the DS pool, I wasn’t able to find it again either. I was really glad to come across it today. Love the pointy corners.
Tag: Blocks
Friendship Block
Last week I mentioned that Camilla, of CamillaKnits, called for blocks for a family who had recently lost their father and husband in a tragic accident. I thought that it wouldn’t be very difficult to whip out something and send it off.
My block is above. I wanted to make it cheerful and I think it does come across as cheerful. Camilla’s rules were 12×12″ finished blocks. Mine isn’t 12×12″, so it will probably end up on the back, but that is no problem for me. I am finding that it is almost impossible for me to follow new directions lately, though I did try.
I have to say I would have done well to just get out Around the Block and make a normal block. This one took me about 2 hours rather than the few minutes I thought it would. I don’t regret the time, because it gave me the opportunity to think about the changes to the lives of family involved. I was also able to contemplate the projects in which I used these cheerful fabrics.
I hope Camilla can use my block and that the family takes some comfort from the quilt.
DJ Crazy
I have to admit I am losing my mind a bit over these Dear Jane blocks. Not so much that I have run upstairs and started sewing, but enough to keep posting here about them. I can’t stop being in awe of what the makers have accomplished.
Page 10 of the Dear Baby Jane pool (http://www.flickr.com/groups/dearbabyjane/pool/page10/) blew me away. The blocks on that page all looked like they were made out of batiks and hand-dyes. They were almost all brightly colored and caught my attention. I guess I am like a bird – attracted to brightly colored and shiny patchwork.
I have posted a few of the blocks, but go take a look at the page.
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Dinnerbel’s E1 Aunt Exie’s Phlox
One of the things I notice as I go through the DJ blocks people have made is how the white stands out. TFQ and I have discussions about white all the time and how it can really detract from the rest of the block – or not allow a person to see the rest of the block. In the case of the DJ blocks, I think the white, in many of the blocks, really makes you see the design. I think the block patterns are so detailed that they need something to show off the intricate piecing. In the case of this block, the white does the trick.
I am really impressed by he great fabric combinations that the makers are using.
Fissiett’s F-10 Potholder Block
There are thousands of Dear Jane blocks posted on the two Flickr groups I have found. I think the choice of fabric and artistry of these blocks is amazing. Not to mention the dedication!
This one, initially, caught my attention because of the dots (of course!). After I got over the dots I noticed how what interesting patches the block has. Notice how the rectangles are not quite rectangles? They seem to be trapezoids. As a result, there is a lot of movement in this block.
Dear Jane by Minka
I have been, as I may have mentioned looking through the Dear Jane blocks various groups of Janiacs have posted on Flickr. The two largest groups are the Dear Janes and Dear Baby Jane (http://www.flickr.com/groups/dearbabyjane/). It is amazing how many blocks these ladies have created.I am in awe of them. I admired one particular member and found her blog. She has some history of her Dear Jane work, a link to which is below.
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Baby Jane: A7 Dads Plaids
TalisCalifornia has made this very interesting version of the Dear Jane block, Dad’s Plaids. I love the way she has switched the background and the foreground within the block. It really has a nice effect that makes your eye move around the block without making them cross (like certain black and white fabrics would).
The Baby Jane group on Flickr is a testament to hope for the future of quiltmaking. These blocks are not easy to put together and they have really done, and continue to do, a wonderful job. They are moving through all of the Dear Jane blocks and I love seeing the progress.
I ponder doing the blocks along with them! I just don’t want to start another hand project until I make some progress on the Flowering Snowballs and my projects from Pamela Allen’s classes.
Sarah’s Star
I have a wonderful problem. My trips to Seattle this year are starting to blur together a little bit. If I could go to Seattle every weekend, or every other weekend, I just might do it. I like that city and I feel so relaxed after I come back.
I think the blurring may bea result of both TFQ and I being creatures of habit. We like eating in the same places and going to the same stores. I welcome the variation that she provides for my trips when she asks me to go with her to some home store or we go and explore a shop we’ve never visited.
On one of my trips, we went to Quiltworks Northwest and saw their Block fo the Month club. One of the blocks they had up was one called, we found out later in Around the Block, Sarah’s Star.
I like it because of the way you can highlight the different spokes of the star and make it look like two pinwheels overlapped on each other. I want to try it with a black background.
And a Flowering Snowball
As an added bonus, I finished one Flowering Snowball (Cross Block) last week. I particularly like this one, because it has the coffee print. I think I am close to the end of piecing these blocks. I want to do a self border so I have to make those blocks. It is just a feeling, so we’ll see how it progresses.
Bold graphics
I am catching up on my blog reading and this picture comes from Kathy at Pink Chalk Studio. Isn’t it great? I love the simplicity with interest and the bold, graphic colors. The alternating of the colors is wonderful as well.
I know I should be writing about the Gabrielle (pronounced Gob-Ree-Yell) Swain class. In short, it was fantastic. More on that tomorrow; I am making it an early night.
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Heart Idea
I like the shape of the hearts in this quilt. Not so fond of the colors, but they aren’t terrible either. I can imagine it in turquoise, sunshine yellow, lime and papaya. Sounds like summer, huh?
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More Blocks
These are the two blocks that I started and finished last weekend. I am still kind of wondering about the larger background prints. Are they still background-y enough or do they blend in with the colors too much? Still considering.
Snowball Wreath
Per a conversation on the AQSG list, I am posting a couple of photos of an old Laura Wheeler block called Snowball Wreath.
Notice the crazy shapes the newspaper printed for piecing (lower right). Could anyone actually make a quilt from those kinds of pieces? I would really love to see a 1930s or 1940s (or whenever this pattern was printed) quilt from this pattern.This is my attempt. I appliqued the circles on after piecing them.
I issued an informal challenge on a list and Julie made the one above.
The challenge required people to draft their own templates and I found that to be quite a challenge, because 1) I only had the information on the newspaper clipping image. I don’t have the actual newspaper; 2) the block is not made from a grid that I could figure out; and 3) the circles did not exactly line up.
It was a fun and challenging puzzle, one in which I am still interested.
Cross Block and Royal Cross
The research of the real name of the Cross Block started with a stray comment I made on a list saying I wondered what the real name of my block was.
That sent Sarah on a frenzy of Googling, where she found that the Library of Congress has quilt photo called Royal Cross that has similar bones to the Cross Block. Sarah also found that Tazzie has a pattern for the Royal Cross.
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Then Leslie chimed in with the sudden realization that she had a quilt from her Grandma in this [Royal Cross] pattern. She posted the pics, which I have reproduced here.
Full quilt
Detail
Comparison between the Royal Cross and the Cross Block.
Blocks are constantly modified to suit the needs of the maker and I am sure that these blocks are no exception. My block and the Royal Cross look similar in the middle, but the outside of the Royal Cross looks like it is meant to draw attention to those squares in the corner. I can’t say much about that as I went on and on in one post about the center of this, among other patterns, not actually being the center. I’ll have to look through the Barbara Brackman book and the Kansas City Star books and see what I can find. If all else fails I’ll post a picture on the AQSG Yahoogroup and start sending photos around to various quilt historians.
Julie’s MavSwamp Project
I had nothing to do with this project, but went to visit my friend from High Fiber Content and found out that she has been holding out on us on her blog. I took pictures of these blocks she got through a swap. I thought they were really a good group.
This is one of my favorites.
I like the color combination of this block as well.