Dear Jane.

Off to Dear Jane class today.  Held once a month, it's a good amount of time to actually get some blocks done between classes.  Six intrepid souls braved the freezing winter wind to get together at Quilters Bazaar 
in Gisborne.  Everyone is getting blocks together at varying paces.  I only pieced together 3 blocks since the last class, but I've been working hard on my Joseph's Coat quilt.
Here are my Dear Jane blocks in all their glory.

The top row is blocks  A1-A7.  Then I decided to sew the blocks from the centre out in the Trip Around The World colour scheme that Jane used.  Makes it easier to sort out different fabrics in each colour round I think.
I'm trying to stay as close as possible to the colours and patterns in the original.  Oh so far to go! LOL.

Two down.

Well, another great use of the weekend.  I'm in count down mode to use my kitchen floor baste-ing space before my new kitchen gets going and I no longer have the room.
So , bright and mid-afternoon (LOL), I got out the backing I took all day to stitch yesterday, and started by sticking it to my floor.
Why does it always take me so long to sew together a backing.  I think a lot of it's in my mind!  But when I have to stitch several pieces of fabric together it takes me ages.
Anyway,  backing stuck down then batting and finally the top.  Yayyyyy.  Onto the hardest part- the pin basting.
So once again I enlisted help of the kids and that helped get the job done.
Here's a photo of the quilt all basted.

It's another mystery quilt from Bonnie K. Hunter    of Quiltville.  I really love stitching along on her mystery quilts.
I still have another 4 or 5 quilts to pinbaste, but I think I may run out of pins before I finish.  I have 2 1/2 boxes of safety pins left.  Crossed fingers it will see me through.
As a thankyou to the DK's what better way to spend a cold wintery evening at the start of 2 weeks of school holidays than toasting marshmellows?

We don't have an open fire so this is the next best thing!

It's in her blood!

Well, look out mum , I'm coming in.
My youngest DD at 12 has decided that she's waited long enough in the sewing stakes and she wants to get involved.  She's been happy until now,  cutting out animal shapes and hand sewing them together (with plenty of stuffing) to make animals.  In she comes to my sewing room today, and announced she was going to make a cushion.  She had a hand-drawn pattern in one hand and a piece of fabric that I had printed a photo onto for her.
We modified the design a little to make it achievable for her, I cut her chosen fabric into strips and away she went.  She actually is a very safe and straight sewer on my trusty old Pfaff.  I guess all those years of watching have paid off.

Anyway , a couple of hours later, we had a cushion front.

All her own choice of fabric from my "fabric resource centre"!
Only one problem: now she's asking where she can "have a corner of her own" in my sewing room.  There aren't enough corners for me, let alone one for her. LOL.

Onto actual quilting, not just topping!

Well, shortly I'm hopefully updating my kitchen.  Yayyy to me.  Unfortunately, I will lose the only space in my house where I can lay out backing, batting and top to baste for quilting.  Given that I'm not a big machine quilter anyway, it's just another barrier to me in the completion stakes!
So, this morning I decided I'd better actually use the floor before I loose it.  I moved the kitchen table out, washed the floor (and very nearly threw in the towel then and there!), and began. 
One quilt down, only another 4 or 5 to do. 
Here's my quilt when we'd finished the pin basting , I actually managed to enlist the help of oldest DD in closing the pins.  What a girl.

See the sparkly pins.  Millions of them, or it felt like it.
This is one of Bonnie K Hunter's
mystery quilts from a couple of years ago.
It's part of my 10 in '10 pledge- to finish 10 quilts in 2010 from Linda's Blog so I'd best get to it.
I keep getting side-tracked onto new projects.  Oh well.

More on the wall.

I've been sewing together some more Joseph's Coat blocks this last week.  Today I pressed them and hung them on the wall.
What do you think?  Mind you, I need to get 49 blocks done, so I'm far from nearly finished.  Oh I wish!

Don't mind the "octopus" legs coming from behind the block!  That's part of the next work in progress.  Not to mention the hexagons beside that.  Never want to be without a possible project!
Swimming sewing was more Dear Jane blocks this week, "one step at a time" with that one.

Quilt Aid 2010.

Have you heard about Quilt Aid?  It's a  Block of the Month quilt to fundraise for the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.  This Hospital and its outreach centres offer extremely needed aid to Ethiopian women who have suffered severe injuries during childbirth.
The quilt has 12 blocks, each designed by a different Australian designer especially for this project.
It's great that quilters can become involved with something so worthy to help women in need.

Up and running.

So, it's amazing what you can achieve in 1 week.  I left my dear Jane blocks to their own devices last week, and carried on with my Joseph's Coat blocks.  Actually, I started my Joseph's Coat blocks to be more truthful.  Oh, they are so luscious in lovely pink Kaffe Fassett fabrics and some blow ins.  Very Spring I think.  I'd already prepped a lot of the little wedge bits, so it was just a matter of pinning them down to the background and sewing them down. 

Excuse the UFO in the background!  I have a lovely large design wall, but it's never big enough.
Off to cut out some more shapes,  this could become addictive, just like sewing hexagons.  Oh dear.