Playing around with Dick and Jane

 

Spent Saturday playing around with a test block. It has, of course, taken over and become the primary project.  I wanted to find a block that would showcase a novelty print, specially requested by a co-worker. So I turned to a book I got just for novelty fabrics. Not sure who mentioned it in a blog or what bread-crumb trail of sites I traveled to find this book but it is  What a Novel Idea by Pat Sloan.

And here is the test block, along with some more I made today. It is a big area, 8.5” so pulled out the Dick and Jane fabric from Michael Millar.  I loved this print but the figures are so large I’ve had a hard time finding a place to use them.

I’m liking the pattern except for the  use of 3” squares to do the 2.5” half square triangles. This is the second pattern I’ve found doing this. Which means you cut three times to get the unit.  Cut a 3” square, sew, cut in half, cut down to 2..5. Once I realized she was trying to get a 2.5” unit, I pulled out the 2.5 strips and started cutting using the triangle ruler. It doesn’t seem like a big deal but so far I’ve used three strips of 2.5” WOF yellow, which means I would have trimmed off 1.5” of fabric if I started with 3” squares.

This is the fabric that was originally going to be in the star block. Decided instead to do the disappearing 9  patch with it. The pattern repeat was too small for the large block.