So here are five more installments of Dear Jane, three yesterday and two today. I probably could have done another one today, but there is another bug going around the family. Sammy first and naturally he shared with me.








F-2 Kaleidoscope, this is very similar to a block I made for a sampler quilt many years ago called Dusty Miller. It went together very smoothly and I think that if I were going to chose a block to make an entire quilt of this one would definitely be in the running.

This one also gives a lot of bang for the buck. Enjoyable to piece, fast and simple, doesn't matter to the looks that it's a little off-center.

F-3 Snowball

F-4 Old Windmill

This one was a little trickier, I found that the best way was to make the center then join all the outer pieces making a ring. I had to leave the inner quarter inch seam allowance so that I could pivot and it worked very well. The upper right corner square isn't really not square, it was just the way the picture turned out and I didn't retake it.

F-5 Parcheesi

F-6 Deanie's Daisies, fast to piece and hand appliqued the teensy little leaves. Not very well I might redo them, and then again might not. I'm not going for a show quilt!

I wanted to share this picture of sun dogs from yesterday morning, Ambrosina took it on the way to taking the kids to school. She said it looked like we have three sons. I have never seen them in person I don't go out when it's cold enough to see them, but some day I might. I am also waiting to see the Northern Lights which can get very bright down here but one has to get away from the lights of the city. One night we tried but David doesn't have the patience so we never got to a point to where we could see them. He likes to get to bed early and didn't want to spend the best sleeping hours looking for them. That is only fair, I don't want to spend my best sleeping hours to get up and see the sunrise. Anyway, it's a pretty cool picture.

And it's only two months until spring!

Here is yesterday's block redone. It took three tries but I managed. Still not perfect, but then neither am I.

 And this one finishes row E, Moth in a Web.

And a start on row F, Big Top.

I had a very good working morning. I tried both Saturday and Sunday to work in the mornings, but I couldn't concentrate and nothing came out right so I gave up trying over the weekend. I hope that things go as well all week as they did today. We have an "Arctic vortex" expected over the next few days with temperatures and windchill to -50. It's already very cold down here and I am thinking of getting under the covers and taking a nap. My fingers are cold and I need to get into my sweater. Then there is the ultimate weapon: the mattress heating pad. It looks like I am going to need it. Let us hope the furnace doesn't give out again!

I'm happy to say that I am finally back at my Dear Jane, at least until I run out of yellow fabric. It's far from perfect, but this is closer-up than anyone would probably look at it and I am not trying to win any contests with it. I am going to try to do two a day, but only got one done this morning because I had other commitments. I also made 18 little four patches that will finish at two inches. I am using them for leaders/enders so I don't have to break the thread so often. It's amazing how many seams there are in this little four and a half inch block. I did learn one thing though, if you have to leave off a project like this don't leave a block half done. I had to start over because I lost my place, and also some of the pieces. And just now looking at it I realize I made a mistake, the big triangles on the right and left are supposed to be white. Arghh! It looks like another redo. And an extra block.

No wonder it look peculiar.

Here she is, my second completed quilt of 2019. I named her "Titania". My third son, Anthony, saw me working on it and said that I was quilting the Titanic and if I wasn't careful it would go down and take all my machines with it. That seemed a suitable name. I couldn't get it all in the picture; there are two rows on the other side of the rail. The top before quilting was 125x125 inches and it was heavy to quilt under Julia Juki. I made do with just basic quilting because it was just to heavy to do anything fancy. There won't be any more finished quilts for a while. This one was the last basted and I can't really baste any more until the basement gets finished and I can unpack everything. I have a few small projects to work on and I am going to try to really make time with the Tumbler pillow shams I want to make for my bed. I also want to get my current spin finished because there is some shaded yellow roving I want to get at the yarn/fiber store to spin until I can get some more raw wool from my sister. I'm taking this opportunity to clean out my sewing corner upstairs.

 I got this roll of drapery fabric at my favorite thrift shop and I honestly love it. It was rally nice to have enough of one fabric to make an entire back. I still had to piece it because of course it wasn't wide enough, but still it was quite easy, compared to my usual small pieces of different fabric I have to piece together.

Some close-ups.

I love the warm fuzzy glow I get when I finally finish a big project. It lasts for a couple of days, at least until I start the next one!

These are the Tumblers for the long bolster pillow for my bed, I have enough rows now so I started putting them together after lunch. This is Ambrosina's new ironing board and I have to say I am not really impressed. It's not as long as a regular ironing board, and you can't hang things over the blunt edge against the door. The door wobbles back and forth unless you put it against the door jam and if you do that you can't hang things over the pointy end. Also when you get out to the pointy end with the iron it gets spongy.
When we lived up in Groton I bought an ironing board that was in a cupboard to install, but it never happened so I brought it with us when we moved down here. It has now been installed down here but I have to wait to use it until the basement is done.

Under the stairs for storage and a place for the freezer.

Office, aka Anthony's room.

Bathroom.

 Laundry/mechanical room/dye kitchen.

View towards the already finished part of the bedroom.

Outside door. The whole part has been primed and is ready to be painted, next the floor and then the bathroom goes in, it's progressing! We are all please because every one is getting tired of the mess, David can't do as much as he wants to so he gets to feeling depressed.

So I think that is everything caught up. I'm still doing a lot of knitting, but I think I am going to try to get to some of the hexagon blocks that are waiting to be put together. They are not packed away and it would be easy to get at them. I'll have to wait and see. There is always plenty to do.






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 Under the stairs for storage.

 Office, aka Anthony's room.

 Bathroom.

Backdoor.

Laundry/mechanical room/dye kitchen. Everything is coming along really good, the whole area is primed and ready to be painted. There is still a lot to be done, but  it is coming along. The worst of the dust-making part is over although there is a tremendous clean-up to be done in the already finished part of the basement. I can't get it completely done until until I can start putting things away, I look forward to that.
I am almost finished with the Dresden Plate quilt, I am hoping I can get a picture tomorrow, but it's really cold and I have a cold and may not feel like going out to get a picture.

I finished these wool socks on Monday, they need to be wet blocked and I am not sure when I can get to that, soon I hope. So it's back to hats and scarves, which are made of acrylic because everybody wants to be able to throw them in the washer and dryer. I'll do the wool things for me.

I keep plugging away at other things, I am hoping to get some Tumbler pillow shams done soon and I will have a picture of those when that happens. I still haven't finished my dress because I haven't been able to get anywhere to get the color of thread that I need. Still no car, sigh. Oh well. I don't fell compelled to get a lot done because I am still not feeling well. I don't know if it's the same thing dragging on and on, or something else. I am trying not to let if slow me down too much but it always done. The good new: only a couple of months until spring and the days are already getting longer!

So here we are with the basement completely sheet-rocked. Taping and mudding start tomorrow. Poor David says he feels useless because he can no longer do the major part of the work. There is still plenty for him to do, but Ambrosina and Anthony did all of the sheet-rock work. And they are going to do most of the taping too. The fact is they are going fast and he is too slow. It may be only a couple of weeks before we have a completed bathroom! Woo hoo!

This is my first completed quilt of 2019. I call it A Bale Of Turtles. While I was working on it we had a discussion about what a group of turtles is called so David googled it. A group of turtles is called a bale so that is what I named it. It's a pretty good sized quilt, I haven't measured it yet so I don't know what the final measurement is, around 90 inches I think. This one will be for sale. This is the 5th turtle quilt, four of them went to grandkids in Washington State.

And the back. Scrappy pieced, of course. I chose to put those fabrics together because they were approximately the same weight of fabric.

Anyway, glad it's done and onto the next, which will be the Dresden Plate, the last basted. That one is huge, about 120x120. It grew and grew. It will be a true quilt wrestling experience.

I am nearly done with the second part of spinning the red fiber that I showed a couple of months ago. After that I will ply the two parts together and it will be finished and I will have to find something else to spin. I haven't been in any hurry to finish it and I lost a lot of time when I was sick but I expect I will be finished with it in less than a couple of weeks, and I don't know what will come after that yet.

Car still not running yet and David is in no hurry to work on it. Same old, same old. I don't even know why I let it bother me any more. Need an attitude adjustment.

Anyway, I am still thinking about what my next project will be, I haven't finished my dress because I forgot to get thread when I was at Walmart and nobody will be going there very soon so I have to wait on that. There are only buttonholes and hem left so it's come pretty far, and it's looking pretty good.

So tomorrow, I guess I'll start on the Dresden Plate, I think I am going to enjoy that one!

I don't have a lot to show for the last month. For two weeks I have been flat on my back with influenza A and it has been no fun. I finished quilting and binding this Pinwheel nine patch a couple of weeks but have been too ill to get a picture until this morning. Unfortunately the five minutes I was out in the cold started me coughing so badly that I had to go back to bed, so I won't be going anywhere for a few days until I can get rid of the cough.

The back is really scrappy pieced. I don't have too many big pieces that I can use for backing right now. At least where I can get at them with everything out under the back porch right now.(Or hit my favorite thrift shop for fabrics?)  Anyway that's one done. I have been able to get up and sew for a while the last couple of mornings and I got a little more quilting done although I haven't been up to any spinning.

I got this yarn and sock book just before I got sick, so I haven't been up to starting anything from it yet.
My dress didn't get done, and I missed the wedding I wanted to get it done for. I haven't felt up to working on it yet.
The car isn't working again. David's made it clear he is waiting to get the building materials out of the garage before he will work on it. Well, it is very cold. One more year and I think we can afford a new car. Gives me a chance to cultivate patience.

I was too ill to even knit for ten days, I tried a little but kept making the same mistake so I gave up until I was doing better. I am hoping now that I will get back up to speed soon because I am getting better everyday.

The framing for the other side has passed inspection, the mechanical has passed inspection, we are now waiting on the wiring inspection. Things are progressing!