Block one of Jane A. Stickle Quilt (JAS-A01) was kind of encouraging though it was a clear demonstration that this is a quilt that can’t be made in a hurry.
Block two, JAS-A02, was a tad easier than the first one or should I say faster.
This block has a whooping 40 pieces but after my experience with JAS-01 I decided to do the cutting a little bit differently. It probably helped that many of the pieces were half squares so to speak and a few squares and rectangles.
So basically I measured the side of the triangles, added 1 inch: 1/2 in for seam allowances and an extra 1/2 in to cover for miscalculations, turning of fabric, etc. and then I cut a square. And finally I I cut the square in the diagonal.
For instance for the larger red triangles I needed to cut 4 squares because I needed 8 triangles in all. And for the large white triangles I cut just one square. And so on. This worked really well and I was quite pleased with this system. It may not work for all blocks but it may for some.
This block reminded a lot of some blocks from the Farmer’s wife quilt sampler but they were actually faster to cut because I didn’t need to be so precise. That’s the beauty of paper piecing, cutting the pieces can feel quite liberating. Even if your pieces aren’t exact you will be able to fix that as you do the patchwork.
And I didn’t waste a lot of fabric. Just 1/4 in around each piece.
So far I have been using fabrics that I used for Farmer’s wife but I realise that if I continue to do so both quilts may end up looking quite similar so I’m going to try and incorporate new fabrics in the mix as much as possible.
Carol gave me a tip last week. She left a comment with the following: ” if you stitch just a hair to the right of the lines, you get better points– the fabric just needs a tiny space to turn around the seam”. I’ll try that next time.
I hope my tips will help you in your Dear Jane trip.
Feel free to send in any extra tips or ideas you may have that helped you.
Where to get the Jane A. Stickle Quilt patterns
Susan Gatewood’s paper foundation . All patterns are free though Susan says “I only ask that you consider making a donation to the Bennington Museum, in Bennington, Vermont. And if you do, it would make me tremendously happy if you would tell them that you have received help from me.” I totally recommend Susan’s patterns as they are very easy to use.
Virtual quilt
See all blocks I’ve done together in a larger size.