Sewing Day

First up – this week’s Friday Block Party block

I fall for this yellow fabric every time! It is bright and cheery and I always forget that it is thin and it can’t hold a shape. I’m not sure where I got it but it makes every block it is in all wonky.

Second – Drum Roll please – My friend’s partially finished Dear Jane!

You have to understand the history of this quilt. This friend C. has been quilting forever. Our other friend T. wanted to learn. So they decided to take a class together. Without seeing the quilt they signed up to take something called a Dear Jane Quilt. It was a weekly class for 4 years. This probably sounds like an insane plan to you. It did to me too. Turns out that when C. saw the quilt she hated it and realized that it wasn’t a beginner quilt for T. Did they let any of these facts change their minds? No.

They took the class for 4 years. They got behind. They got distracted by other quilts. Life interfered. It is now almost 6 years since they started. I told them both that they could have picked up extra college degrees in the time this was taking and pointed out several people on the internet who have done this quilt in 6 months or less. (I’m an encouraging friend like that.) C. started calling it her Everest Quilt. She’s making it because it’s there.

A few weeks ago she confessed to me that she had finished all the center squares and wasn’t sure how to tell T. I had to keep the secret. Eventually she told her and started putting them together. The grand unveiling was today. I brought cupcakes for the celebration. She sashed it so it wasn’t “such visual chaos” as she puts it since she still hates the original quilt. There are still a gazillion triangles that make up the border. She thinks that she has about 75% of them done.

I think it looks pretty good. I don’t like the look of the original either but I’ve seen several that look much better with colored sashing.