Quilt Archeology

 

Here are the Alternate Universe Dear Jane blocks. They include a set of owls...offspring of the Alternate Universe. These will be a separate quilt or should we say these will be stored separately and fantasized as a separate project. I eliminated some pieced blocks that didn't add much, and I can see a few that may disappear in the future. 

In the same shoe-box sized bin were these blocks from the 2019 Rainbow Scrappy Challenge. It looks like I didn't make all of the blocks but added some others. 

And yes there were three more projects in the same bin...a restart of a kitten quilt plus a start of mini kittens. Plus there was the beginning of a Patience Corner quilt inspired by Lynn Dykstra at Klein Meisje Quilts.

I also went through a larger bin that was a start to another seahorse quilt...a smaller size with a redesign. This bin was mostly batik scraps and hunks so those can go back to the fabric mother ship and the quilt project can be moved to smaller accommodations.

And for those of you wondering about freeloading entities assigned to aggravate me, here is the Princess Puppy Buddy. He is also a Support Puppy who helps me with my psychological angst. He sits on me and I tell him that I feel the weight of the world on me, but I don't think he takes the hint.

Portland Protest Frog in Alternate Dear Jane Universe

Long, long time ago in a different state, I made the Dear Jane (top, no borders) quilt. I made it using Kaffe Fassett fabric. And along the way I discovered that Dear Jane had an alternate universe set of blocks on the back that were never published. As I put away the Stonefield OOSOOMUFO (Out of Sight, Out of Mind UFO), I pulled out the Alternate Universe Dear Jane quilt blocks. They also finish at 4.5 inches and I have used mostly Kaffe Fassett fabric for these too. 

Looking at the images I still have ahead of me, I was very shocked to see a Portland Protest  Frog (an inflatable costume that creates its own alternate universe). And now, living across  the country in Oregon instead of Virginia, I knew what this image meant, so I made the block.

Here is the Portland Protest Frog with some of the other blocks from the Alternate Dear Jane Universe. I think I may have to move this to LSWHWILTOITMOE UFO (Let's See What Happens When I Leave This Out In The Middle Of Everything UFO) status.

Stonefield Block Party

 I started the Stonefield Quilt by Susan Smith by making the blocks month by month. About half way through I found myself moving ahead and making the blocks I could sew by machine or simpler appliqué blocks. This, of course, left me with piles of little bits at the end. This star within a wreath was the last block I needed to finish Month Whatever It Was.

Here is that block hanging out with all of its friends from the same month.

And here are the remainders from another month. The original flowers are supposed to be layers of wavy edged ovals laid on top of each other. Taking some "artistic" license, I made them cat fabric flowers instead. 

These are the blocks for that month, whatever that was. One might expect me to take all the Stonefield blocks and put them up as a sort of Stonefield "all the blocks finished" photo, but instead I celebrated by stuffing them all in a box (still by month) and felt the sweet relief of a SAOWAMUFO (Spread All Over, What a Mess UFO) turning into a OOSOOMUFO (Out of Sight, Out of Mind UFO). 

Month Nine

 One more simple flower. This time I basted each petal around the plastic template, cinched it and ironed it. This was much easier than needle turn appliqué despite the extra step.

And these are all twelve blocks for the Stonefield quilt by Susan Smith...Month Nine. For the last three months of this block of the month quilt, I stopped going in order so I'm gathering the blocks back together. This is for accounting...not for how the quilt would go together...which we only have currently as a theoretical construct.

I did notice that over at Kathy's Quilt blog for her Slow Stitch Sunday, there were a few participants working on the Stonefield quilt. And if you would like some nutritious blogging content, check out this post by Rebecca Grace Quilting.

P.S. Any extra characters or symbols in this post are a secret communication from my supervisor.

One more block

 

Here's the block that I finished today. The instructions to the Stonefield quilt calls for two of these blocks. Then there are four more blocks and I will be finished with the blocks for the quilt. The quilt instructions call for a flying geese border and hexagons to complete the quilt, but I am not going there. I am thinking I will finish it like making a fine wine...store away the blocks for a while and let them age (but not ferment, hopefully).

Block progress and Cats

I found myself slowing down considerably working on the Stonefield quilt by Susan Smith and decided I needed to add more fun and cats.

I needed a second version of the same block. This is where I learned that I have a lot more "random design" fabric than symmetric design. I am especially low on symmetric cat designs.

You may remember progress shots of the block on the right. I became stalled at the thought of sewing 24 small circles but once I got going I discovered that thinking about them was worse than actually sewing them. 

I was supposed to make three blocks with simple flowers with a small circle center but those evolved into cat heads.

Meanwhile, in the universe of real cats, Molly has added supervision of a neighbor cat to her supervisory duties. 

Meanwhile, Buddy is working on acquiring his license to be a princess. Thankfully, Molly has a second princess tent so we didn't have to enact The Princess Wars...certain to be an upcoming Disney movie.

Improved Attitude

After I wrote the last cranky post, I remembered that making quilts is supposed to be fun, even tedious appliqué.  I also remembered that although the Stonefield quilt by Susan Smith is softer and sweeter than most things I make, it can be funny. I liked the quilt because of the happy bunny block and have seen a version with the bunny driving a race car. So I took a bit of departure and put a simple flower block on a darker cat pattern.  While I was striving for funny, I may have hit ominous instead.