WIPs - Dear Jane FLIMSY!!, Earth Monkeys, Kelly's 1930s

Currently at my stations:

Piecing:

WHOOP! WHOOP!!  Rainbow Jane is fully assembled!!!  All 5139 pieces. >wah~!<  

 86" square.  Ready for marking the scallops and whatever I decide to quilt in the background triangles. 

I put in cornerstones on this one - went through all the colors I'd received for the blocks and found the one of each color that I liked best. Used that one for all the stones in each radiating color band. I think you can get the idea here:

Regarding earlier thoughts of quilting this in large sections, then joining them - SCRATCH THAT IDEA~!  There are far too many precision points in small measure to match up to ever get it to line up perfectly after quilting. You'd have waves that will never block out completely, or mismatched lines. Besides the whole challenge of the serious thicknesses that fight with the foot as you're sewing.

If you're assembling a Dear Jane, you'll find that the tiny 1/2" sashing places many thick, thick seam-allowance stretches that ride so close to the foot that it's often difficult to keep the edges perfectly lined up. I found pinning like this to be super helpful, because on most blocks, that top Baby likes to slide away from the foot with a strong pull:

I thought about putting on the zipper foot to see if that helped, but the sashing is so narrow that you need a really perfect 1/4" seam. I can't get that without using this particular foot.

GO SLOW. And it also helped to provide support/tension from 3 angles: front and side with my left hand, from the back with my right hand reaching through the machine's throat (absent here to do camera duty):

I have other things that require attention, and after the intensity of assembling her, I do need a Jane break. But I can't wait to give her some more attention next month!!  I plan on marking the scallops and the quilting I want in the blue cones, then I can pin-baste her. I think I will just SID the inside babies, quilt the background cones/scallops, and bind her. I do want quilting in the individual squares, but I'll leave that for "The Second Stage" at some further point in time. Maybe then I'll have an easier machine to heft a VERY HEAVY 85" quilt through.  :)   Because this flimsy is one heavy sucker!!!  

I can't hang it in my Quilting Needed Closet - 

It'll just fall off the hanger. So it sits on top of my treasured quilts armoir stack.

No fears of forgetting her quilting, though! After two years of working on her, she's a very good friend, indeed.

P.S. -  Men. . .  ::shaking my head::  Mr. Caulkins: "This is what it would look like if a quilt farted:"

And after that intense load the past couple of weeks, I'm taking a break from that station.  ;D

Hand Work:

Kelly's 1930s is actually in progress now. 

I'm having a slow climb up the learning curve for the spoon-ma-bob, 

but I can tell I'm really going to like it a LOT. I need to get a leather "thimble" for my upper thumb, though.  

I've stitched in one sashing feather motif and a portion of a corner wreath.

Too bad Clara didn't let me snap this shot in time for my Pets on Quilts post. She's such a pretty girl - and is Selma's daughter (the calico that was on the last post).

FMQ:

This station is mostly occupied by Heather, who is fully engaged in quilting her Dragons.

 I just love this original work of hers. A couple of my favorite panels (still in progress):

For my own FMQ work, I tried out my Sewline ceramic pencil for the first time - yes, the one I've had for about 2 years now.  I LOVE IT!!  Love, love, love.  

And when Heather's not around, I can change the thread at the Sapphire machine and work on Devon's Earth Monkeys. I've got a single layer of Tuscany wool batting in this. Really loving the sashiko pampas grass motif on it. . . So, apparently, are the monkeys!

~*~*~*~*~

Linking up at

Anything Goes

Lee's WIP

Esther's WOW

Whoop! Whoop!

Link a Finish Friday

TGIFF