Thanks Teen! I am enjoying this after stalking this thread for the past year or so. I have learned so much reading it and it's nice to put it into practice. But I think my family will be happy when it's more complete - I have almost every fabric out for my little 1.5 x 1.5 squares!

Oh wow IrishMom!! That's amazing. Even an underwater world! And those beach houses look like the ones I've seen here while on holidays.

What a fun small world, IMom!

Hello! Just found this thread, and I amazed by the gorgeous work you have all posted! I have my first Jen quilt in progress...it’s my fill-in project when I need a break from whatever I am stitching. Glitter is fun, and because it is totally random scrappiness, I just grab fabric from a pile that I have starched, and make a block.
Now To go back through this post from day one.......

Jill....your blocks are gorgeous! Perfect block to just do randomly...love the colors so far. Enjoy the thread reading.. some fun stuff.lol..

jillmc, I've found when making blocks like this I improve my color sense

I sat down with the Dear Jen pattern last night and was thoroughly intimidated by Blocks #1 and #2. If you made this quilt, did you do your blocks in sequence or did you hop around? I'm thinking of hopping right now so I don't get discouraged. I plan to machine piece what I can and hand applique what I can't (like Block #1).

I’m not doing the Dear Jen but I will share that when I made my Sylvia Bridal Sampler, I saved the most challenging for the end. For asymmetrical quilts, I prefer to complete by sections so I typically jump around...it’s a good plan to stay motivated so you do what makes this project enjoyable. Dear Jen is really a row quilt type so you can definitely jump around easily... A pattern is a guide....not the law... looking forward to seeing your blocks....go for it!

Thanks for your advice, Teen, about Dear Jen. I hopped around with Sylvia's Bridal Sampler, Loyal Union Sampler, and the Splendid Sampler, too! Guess I will just give myself permission to dive in and do the easy ones first. I have already made several strips of blocks from my guild block of the month which we're doing virtually.

I would start with some easy ones Mkotch but wouldn't save all the hard ones for the end. You might end up with an UFO. When I made a really hard one (Sylvia Bridal) I treated myself on some easy ones LOL.
I'm not doing the Dear Jen and don't intend to.

Hi Jillmc!! Welcome to our little corner of the board.
Glitter is a great project, your blocks are lovely!!
Do you have the templates? And doing Glitter means you have the book :D :D Or did you buy the templates and went from there?

Jill - great job! I've only had one y-seam in Small World and that was one too many!!

MKotch - good advice from everyone. Start out an easy one or two to get the mo-jo flowing and then mix it up. I've noticed doing Small World that some blocks are coming much easier for me as I have adjusted to sewing with such tiny pieces.

Didn't get to do too much on my quilt this week with work, but we had a rainy cold weekend which made it perfect for me to play with my quilt! I did Section 3 which I themed as North American Forest Animals and Domestic Animals. It took longer but is several inches taller. I had to change one row as it called for three pinwheels and one diamond box. I had more animals to include so I switched it around!

Your fabrics are fabulous, Irishmom... each little figure is so cute and the fabrics on buildings perfect. This is going to be so so cute!!

So cute Irishmom!! Do you have a group shot? I would love to see the sections together :)

Here you go! I haven't done any sky yet so the sections are different heights and not attached yet, except for the factory and farm. I'm glad I waited on the sky cause I'm going to try and go much lighter in the blues than I originally was thinking.

Looks wonderful! The undersea world is awesome....my fav part so far. And the kitty in the churn dash cracks me up. I giggle every time I see it..

Wonderful !!! I love what you've done so far. It's like an I spy quilt, there's so much to see https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/heart.gif

Have not been over here for quite some time, and got curious about the "dear jen" that was mentioned, and now I really want to do that one! I've been thinking I wanted to do more with appliquick, and that patterns looks like it would give me plenty of practice on those skills.

Not that I need any new ideas - I've set a goal this year to try to deal with UFO's. I've got to stop joining block swaps!

Hi Macy!!
I'm not attracted to Dear Jen at all. I've seen some finished on Facebook and didn't like them. So that's one I'm not going to do.
But I would love to see what you do with the pattern.

I really like the Boho Heart too!

I ordered both the Boho Heart and Dear Jen. I know I have at least one other JK pattern I've not made yet.

I have more than at least one LOL. Boho Heart, That Fairy Tale, Happy Birds, Midnight at the Oasis and at least one more I can't remember right now.

I have several as well I’d like to do. Bring Me Flowers and Gypsy Wife are on the top of list but I’d like to do Meadow as well as a couple of projects in her collective book.

I'm hoping my patterns show up soon! I ordered them off Etzy, and the first one I selected was from an Australian company, so went back and found it from a store in IL, and they had both patterns so that worked out.

I have ordered patterns from Australia before, but with all the crazy going on, preferred not to have something coming from that far away.

Here are some of my strips for Dear Jen, which I will call Dear Marianne since many of these first blocks are based on traditional blocks and not Jen's. I am waiting for some more tea-dyed muslin to arrive since I want to alternate dark and light backgrounds.

Those look very nice!

I'm looking forward to my patterns arriving so I can get started on that one.

Mkotch...you are off and running. Looks great, so far.. Love the light/dark BG idea... I do that a lot on my quilts when I can. This is the perfect pattern to do that. I did this on Green Tea and Sweet Beans quilt and I really like the effect. Looking forward to seeing more...

I got my books - didn't realize that Dear Jen is meant to be hand stitched. Doesn't really matter to me, I plan on doing it all by machine anyway, and it will be a challenge dealing with y seams and partial seams and curves, all applique will be turned edges and zigzag stitched with invisible thread. I wanted a challenge so this is fine. I plan on doing one set of blocks a week, but have not decided about any background or colorways yet. I may just do them all different and not worry about it.

MKoch - great work!! Especially joining the blocks with slant angles. I've mastered points and corners but angles ... I just close my eyes and pray they match!

Lol....I use to do the same...then I watched a video on something unrelated and she demonstrated how to do this. Now, I place a pin on the top seam at the 1/4” seam allowance and run the pin on the bottom piece at the 1/4” seam allowance. It lines them up perfectly. I’d like to one day be good enough to not need pins for anything...like my hero Eleanor Burns...but, Not there yet..

Interesting way to look at it. I have a book of animal blocks which look paper pieced but instead use pins to line things up. Thanks for the helpful hint! Hopefully I can use it this weekend!! Youngest daughter went back to college this week so life has been busy, but my Small World has been yelling at me to come back!

Is anyone here doing the Boho Heart Quilt Along on FB that started this past week? I have my pattern and was ready to start but due to circumstances could not sew this week - will have to catch up next week and try to get 2 weeks done.

Not me, Deb...but I will cheer you on from here....such a cute pattern... Please share pics...

I started looking at the Dear Jen patterns this morning. Since there are a lot of template pages, I cut the book apart and put it into a three ring binder. Way easier to make copies that way. This is the third book I've done that to, and at least this one was easy because it's only folded and stapled.

I really like the way the quilt on the cover looks, but I'm still not decided on if I want to make three of each block or go a different route. I don't really want to end up with a 90 x 90 quilt. . .
For those working on this pattern, how are you doing that - just one block or making sets or what . . .

I also like the layout that gives the medallion look with square of light or dark blocks - and I could enhance that by doing several colors and not just light/dark . . . hmmm ideas are starting to emerge! I think I am going to use some of my KF (and similar) prints. I did that before for one of Jen's patterns, but it got too wild for me as I used them for the background also. I think if I keep to solid/TNT background it might not get so wild.

Macybaby, thanks for the suggestions about cutting the book apart. I'm going to try that, although I think I'm going to create some paper pieced blocks from the book next. I hate making templates for piecing as mine never turn out very accurately.

I am making the three block layout using mostly unbleached and tea-dyed muslins as my backgrounds. I have been incorporating our local guild's blocks of the month into my quilt, so it's really "Dear Marianne" at this point. I just finished appliqueing the Dear Jen blocks with circles and have to finish that strip. This is definitely a long term project for me!

MKotch - I ditto MacyBaby's idea to put the pages into a 3 ring binder. I wish I had thought of that for Small World - so much flipping!

I hit a little bit of a slump as I usually do this time of year. For some the winter weather gets the inside quilt making going at full speed, for me I just want to be wrapped in a quilt reading! To get out of the slump I worked on the sky for my Small World (mindless but needed to be done). That got me going again and I was then able to finish Asia/South America/the rain forest. Notice the small rain clouds in the sky over the buildings!

I'm in the middle of the city panel (the city is a jungle!) and when that's complete I'll show the whole quilt again. I can't believe after the city I'll only have the hills to do. I've definitely gotten better at working with the smaller pieces. My last set of pinwheels in the city have some super sharp points! (super proud moment)

Enjoy my jumble section of Asia and South America!

This is a great section....the clouds look cool and the animals in the windows are so cute...the ant eater and camel cracked me up.....so clever..... can’t wait to see the whole thing...

Irish Mom, I love your quilt! All the animals here and there are adorable. Your sky is very cute, too. Can't wait to see more.

Thanks for the nice comments!

Below is the last full section - the City is a Jungle! This was great fun to do, lots of good jungle animals having a good time.

Then I attached it to the other panels and the only piece left to do are the hills. Hopefully this weekend I'll get to work on those.

I have to give credit for a lot of my fabric to the Birthday Candy Swap. We exchange 50 2.5 inch cuts of fabric throughout the year - you receive your pieces on your birthday. My first year there were 35 participants (1,750 different fabric squares!) and last year 24 (1,200 squares). In my South America/Asia you can see all the different fun colored animal prints - those were from the swap. Also, lots of other pieces especially in the sky and grass were also from that swap. This years swap is open to new participants until February 20 if you want to join in the fun! It's a great swap if you like scrappy quilts.

Now the big question - how am I going to quilt it!???!!!??

Irish....this is really amazing!! So creative. It’s turning out so cool...love it! Others who have made this pattern will likely come along and offer suggestions on the quilting. I’ve seen some fantastic designs...not sure if there are pictures of completed pieces on this thread or just the the tops but may be worth a look for inspiration.