Cre8tvlwyr

Anael!!! I don't know why I didn't recognize my Nederlandse buddy Where have you been??
I got an message back from Patrice regarding starting a new thread. She would really like to close this one when we start another DJ thread so that people are not posting to both and that gets pretty confusing. I am not sure if I can be completely finished by January....that would be pushing it, but February - definitely.
carriem was the first to mention a new thread for 2014 - I started this one because the one that was going in 2011 was fizzling much like this is now! It doesn't really matter "who" starts one but the details need to be cleared with Patrice. If it is alright with you to let me get through the remaining blocks so I can finish a "reference chart" to this thread before we close it completely and start another. Any of you can start it, or I can get it going and you can take it over.... my toes are fine!! This has always been a group effort a great group it is too!!!
I will check back - happy holidays
Monica aka Gus

by the way here's my "good, bad, and ugly" quilt top for my guild ....I won a $20 gift cert to my wonderful LQS - "Cotton and Chocolate" in Thousand Oaks!!! our guild activity chair takes a random bunch of fabric from a pile of donated fabrics totaling 2yd and puts it into brown bags which we take and have two months to put together a top using those fabrics only.
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Cre8tvlwyr

OK so feeling guilty .... I decided to trim and take a photo of M6 which I confess I actually made a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving but never posted....ahem
I made it strictly using the sketch in Brenda's book, which is different from the original Jane - if you want to be exactly like Jane, you must make the center section [which I pieced by hand because I felt it would be much more precise and easier than all those Y-seams by machine!! so small]. If you look at Jane's, you will note she then put a background border around the center - a'la log cabin style. Last border doesn't consist of corner squares at all. Look carefully at the picture - Jane fashioned this log cabin style as well, beginning at the left side on page 116, making the background sections the same width/length as the inner border and centering the print fabric in between. Then she went on to the bottom strip, background ends even with the border, print strip, background ends even with next section of inner border, continuing around the right side and top. After nearly two years, I'm not sticking to Jane all the time!! oh well... so here it is!
Gus
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Anael

Hi Monica
I was still here but not working on DJ. Lots have happened this year. My DS and DDIL had twins in January, 14 weeks early and they were in hospital for 4 months. I got sick beginning of September and just now starting to recover so I had other things on my mind.

I'm determined to go back to DJ and finish this time. It's OK with me when you start the new thread and one of us takes over once you're done!

I like your M6, it's very well done!

Cre8tvlwyr

Dank U wel, Anael! I remember the twins' birth - zien er gesond uit [lookin' healthy!] not sure I spell it right, I never had a Dutch education as I moved to the U.S. when I was 4. I love the motos you have in your signature block

I will pop in a few times weekly before Christmas - hopefully will get another block done this week.
Monica

QuiltnNan

Another fizzler here Gus, I like a lot of your suggestions. Another suggestion: Since many of us 'fizzled' at different points in the schedule, I was thinking of a way to have a new schedule that won't have folks running into weeks of blocks they already finished. So, if we take your schedule and just turn it upside down, we can work on it from the back end until we get to the point where we stopped. What say you all? I'm hoping to get back to DJ after the holidays and would love a new quilt along for motivation.

CindyA

If we worked backwards from the original schedule it would work for me. I really have to be realistic, however, and I don't know when I'll actually work on my blocks. I will follow along a thread, whether I've made blocks or not, though.

QuiltingNinaSue

I enrolled with www.quiltingonthesquare.com because I love their Spike your English free blocks that Mary has worked out so well. Looking forward to their 'tips' on the Dear Jane journey.

NDQuilts

I like the reverse order idea. It would allow all of us to start as a group. The oldies will be doing the blocks they have not completed yet and the newbies will keep going as the "oldies" start assembling the top.

Anael

The reverse idea is ok with me too.

Cre8tvlwyr

I can go ahead and make a "reverse schedule" or start with the last couple of months and tack that to the beginning.

The one concern I have is for newbies if we simply go in reverse. The reason I say this is because I had taken many suggestions from the former DJ group when making up the first schedule. Meaning, it is very "beginner block heavy" during the first 6 weeks. The end of the schedule is 'advanced heavy.' Those of us who started in Jan '11 have 'fizzled' at different stages. Some of the suggestions I received was to make a schedule that allowed 'Janiacs' to sew rows together as they advanced through the schedule thinking we would be more likely to complete our 'journey' ....of course people like myself weren't sewing them together anyway because I for one think I will change the position of some of the blocks to balance the colors I chose to complete them. Some haven't decided whether to machine or hand quilt. I know some of my non-QB members near home are working the entire Jane by hand and in "around the world" fashion - starting in the center and making rows on point as they continue and immediately attaching them.

I think the main disadvantage to working it in reverse is the difficulty level though. What if I combine these suggestions? thinking as I type..... no good.... I dont know where everyone is?? I have blocks L2, 9, 10 and M1, 4, 8, 9, and 11 remaining and 13 tris scattered in the last three months. It would be too hard to combine first of the A blocks with the M blocks?? counterintuitive??
thoughts??
M