Dear Jane F 11 & H 12 & H 13 & F 8

   Well here are my next 4 DEAR JANE BLOCKS 

F11

H12

F 8

H 13

Unexpected mail

  I received an unexpected package in the mail. Interesting. It was from New Zealand. Lou thought I needed something to do.  She knows I love puzzles.

 Also included was a fun little butterfly spinner.

Ok, I am off to start this. I wonder how I will do.

OMG

This one is hard. I spent about 4 hours on this so far and I didn’t get much done. The colours on the pieces are very hard to distinguish on the box. So it may take a while.

After another night of puzzle stress.. I am getting some of the wings outline but it is hard work.

Lou had made a start with this puzzle back in November ‘25. She wasn’t happy with this one.

Loulee butterfly jigsaw

Progress on my Chookshed challenge for March

 I have made progress with my challenge this month.

Making placemats to match my table runner which I finished in 2020

https://jobutterfield.blogspot.com/2020/01/broken-herringbone-table-runner-ufo.html

This is the starting point of the my ufo. Here is the table runner.

Here is what was in the bag. The pieces already cut. Some are sewn. The goal is to use up what I have and get the most placemats I can.

I have sewn all the pieces together into the largest piece and I am starting with a rough trim.

I decided to stipple quilt it the same as the runner

Once I trimmed it I managed to get 4 placemats.

I’m linking up with FNSI

Dear Jane week 10

My next 2 Dear Jane blocks are done. 1 easier than the other. I got there though. 

H8 was a bit more work. I appliquéd a circle larger than needed. I then cut it into quarters and added the centre cross.. I foundation pieced the hourglass units and added them to the centre.

G4 went together very easy. I was happy with this block.

Some baby knitting

 I occasionally knit some baby items for charity. I made a premie jacket

And beanies.

 They just needed sewing up.

I have a friend that loves knitting and passed these on to me. 

Look at them all.

Now I’m dropping them off to another friend to give to Jan Mc from Oz Comfort Quilts and the Northern Hospital.

More Dear Jane H9 & G 13

 The next weeks blocks to be done are 

H9. 

I just had my nails done and found hand stitching hard. Therefore I couldn’t really hand appliqué the diamonds on so I went down the route of fpp. All machine done and I think it worked out ok. Quilted and ready to join to the next block in the row.

G13

This block was made years ago so I just had to quilt it.

More blog books printed

I was dealing with a lot at the end of 2024 as well as Blog 2Print went out of business. It took some time to source another company but Judy form Cornerstone creations had one done from IntoRealPages. She was happy with their service and quality. So I thought I would give them a go. She did say the books were about an inch taller than the other books we had previously had done.  I got online and had a look. Did all the things to get it started and waited for a discount coupon to be advertised. $US conversion to AUD$ is a killer. 2 years of blogs were ordered. With the coupon they roughly were the same $ as previously paid. 

My books have arrived and yes they are of a good quality. There are a few differences. Not as many covers to choose from, I couldn’t find how to add a photo to the cover and they were taller. There was a cover page for every month too.

Another difference, I’m not sure how I did it, was the 2024 book had a collage of my photos on one of the first pages. I like this idea. The 2025 book didn’t.

The layouts are similar to the previous books I have. 

Here they are all lined up together. I am so happy to have them all up to date. I get these as a Christmas present to myself. Yes they are costly but who knows if blogger will ever disappear and all is lost. I do enjoy looking through these at times. I even share them with friends when a topic comes up I know is in there. 

Oh, you can also see my old kids books on the shelf too. Mmmm, we have a story book week challenge happening in April…. 

https://intorealpages.com/

RSC Red for Betty

RSC so scrappy Saturday March colour is red. I made this ahead of time 

Here is my red row for Betty. I have chosen different size squares in 2.5”, 5” & 10.5”.

They work from one large block and slowly work down in size. 

The planning and layout .

All sewn together. It measures 10.5” * 56.5”. One end has a slightly larger block so the row can be trimmed once sewn into the quilt.

Funny pictures from my daughter.

My daughter has been having fun playing around with photos. 

She loves chatgpt and AI. This is what he has done. 

My Lego sewing station

and not to leave her dad out. Here is his mechanic workshop

as it is my birthday today I have this fun one from Christmas Day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

This is what my daughter sent me.

We are away at a bushland resort and we had some furry visitors to our cabin today.

Dear Jane change of plans

The Dear Jane sew along group I am part of started off making 1 block per week. I sewed F8 before that week started. Now they have changed the order of blocks and now plan to sew 2 a week.  So first up was 

F4 

H6  this block was a little tricky. 

.. 

I had prepared this one so I could hand appliqué the the curved pieces.

then machined it together. 

i am doing QAYG so once that was done I trimmed to 5”.

Yes, they finish at 4.5”