Dear Jane

The 12th row of Dear Jane is finished. It is much easier to work on small quilting projects when the weather is hot. Two blocks of row 13, the last row in the quilt, are pieced. I will put piecing Dear Jane aside for a while and concentrate on something else.

I’m adding the row to the body of the quilt in the evenings while I watch TV. When that is finished, I have the bindings of two large bed quilts to tack down. It’s amazing what one can accomplish when you set your mind to it .

My friend, Jean, and I are going to a quilt show in Pennsylvania in September. My community was bought out by Sun Community. They sponsor the My Jump program. My Jump is a program where a member of the community is given something that is on their bucket list. We had a community meeting. Everyone there said what was on their bucket list. I said that I wanted to go by train to Oregon to the Sisters Quilt Show. My request won. Unfortunately, because of Covid and the wild fires, we couldn’t go to Sisters, but plans are being made to attend Quilt Extravaganza in Pennsylvania. It still is unreal that we are going on this fabulous trip.

We’ve already been interviewed on video. The videographer came to my home and videoed my sewing room and some of my quilts. Jean was videotaped at the Community Center. We’ll go from Boston on Amtrak. While there , we will stay at a Sun Resort. I’ll take lots of pictures to share on the blog.

There are several people involved in this trip. Jean and I want to give them a gift so I made several embroidered wall hangings. Jean is tacking down the bindings. I used Donna Dewberry’s embroidery patterns for this project.

After I finished making the embroideries, I had a pile of scraps that was leftover. The scrap bin is full, so these scraps have to be made into something and not stored away for future use.

The scraps were cut into 1 1/2″ strips. They will be the start of a new quilt that has 3 1/2″ nine patches. I’ll just make the nine patches and decide how to set them later. I’m starting a new mini quilt that uses 1 1/2″ strips and the leftovers from that project will be added to the nine patch quilt. I can sew the nine patches together when I want an easy project.

The cutting instructions have come for this year’s mystery quilt. I may cut the pieces, or I may wait until the block instructions come and cut the fabric then, I have until next month to decide. It’s interesting to see other people’s fabric choices on the blog.

Have a great day and happy quilting.

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