Week Eight: Break

This week I am taking a break from my Dear Jane until Feb. 26th. Thus I have ignored my blog and for that I apologise dear Reader. I've been a bit under the weather and we had company on Sunday so I just haven't been up to blogging. I have managed to finish piecing my UFO Rainbow Circles and it is looking fantastic.

I have been taking progress photos as I've gone along but I totally forgot to blog about this one. I really want to talk more about my progress and process than my accomplishments so I have to stop neglecting the blog. I may retro post some stuff or I may just do an extra long post on all my progress to date. I've been working on RC since I finished Flying Pirates on Jan. 29th.

I purchased the wedge tool at my first CreativeFair in Fall 2011. I have always wanted to do a giant circle quilt and this is the year of finally doing all those "I'm not ready yet" projects. The Dear Jane, the curved seams, the lone star, machine quilting, etc. I've been quilting for fifteen years. I don't know when I thought I would finally be ready for all these dream projects of mine.

The only way to "be ready" and get "good enough" is to just do it. Curved seams weren't the nightmare I thought they were going to be and the circle quilt is the same. I'm not saying I'm not having any problems because of course I am. Even an easy project produces mistakes and headaches but the circle quilt has proven to be very doable.

I purchased the fabric for this quilt at Fabricland in Spring 2012? Not quite sure that's right may have been the fall. I fell in love with this range of super saturated primaries they had so I bought the rainbow specifically for this quilt. The colours make me smile every time I work with them. They are so happy and so bright. And even though they are just plain cotton they have an almost metallic gleam to them. DH noticed it too when he was looking at the quilt last night. No metallic or other colours in these fabrics they are all strictly tone on tone but somehow they gleam at you.

I also found a great design idea for one of my unassigned jelly rolls. I`m not sure where to put it on The List or what colour to use for it. Technically it is a new project but it will not require any new fabric. The fabric was purchased about two  years ago so I don`t think that makes it new and while the fabric is in my stash I`m not sure just jelly rolls are stash fabrics. My plans call for only the jelly roll to be used. I am pretty sure I won`t need borders. Well, it`s my list and my rules so I am going to say, no, its not a new project because I am not  going to purchase any fabrics, patterns, or notions for it and, yes, jelly rolls are part of the stash so it is a stash busting quilt. Huzzah.

While looking for help with my RC quilt last night I stumbled upon a free pattern from a fabric company which would look fabulous with one of my Tonga Treat packs. This one would require additional fabric so I am not sure I will put it on any list. We`ll see.

The fabric companies sure have a lot of nice free patterns now. They all use traditional blocks for the most part but they run the gamut of skill levels and they do a great job of showcasing the fabrics. Much better than those ugly sort of framed panel type quilts they were favoring at first. I saw a couple last night which made me want to purchase the fabric line just to make the quilt. Which is of course the whole point of the companies providing this new design service. Bravo for them.

Well, there you go. The state of my quilt union to date. I think it`s going pretty well and I haven`t been to distracted by new fabrics and patterns. I very happy with the progress of my Dear Jane quilt and my UFO project. Still early days but the year is looking good from here.