Junko's Rose Garden

Some blocks seem to put themselves together and others are an ordeal. M7 - Junko's Rose Garden was the latter. I don't understand reverse applique so I hand stitched all of this. The last seams (to set in the medium-green smile-shaped pieces) were the hardest. I tried all kinds of methods and made up a few -- including making big stitches (basting of sorts) along the seam lines and then going back and doing an applique (slip) stitch to secure those pesky pieces.

Redrafting the Block

I redrafted this block so that the dark green melons are pieced rather than appliqued. I know how to applique melons but I pieced some melons on another Dear Jane block and liked the results enough to try it again. What I did not realize is that this meant that in four places on this block, there's a convergence of eight pieces and all their resulting seam allowances.  That created a whole lot of bulk and struggle. At least I was smart enough to not run the new seams into the corners. In the second photo, you can see the draft revision (see pink circle) and the resulting seam (see pink arrow). Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Fabric

Both solid greens are from the same fabric, which has a gradation of greens. For the centerpiece, I almost used the tiger fabric, but instead chose a fabric I used in my very first Dear Jane block (shown here). That block uses none of the  ivory fabric because when I made it, I had no intention of ever making a Dear Jane quilt, so I did not have a color plan -- or the ivory fabric. I'm hoping that by using this fabric here, it will help tie my first block's fabric choices to the overall quilt. When I finally finished this block and started blogging today, I realized that the centerpiece fabric goes with the name of the block -- rose garden (hopefully not junko!) That was a nice little coincidence.

The Big Green Diamond

I'm working from the center of this quilt out to the corners. Obviously, that was not always my plan. Anyway, completion of this block means I have one more green block to make and then I am done with that giant diamond of green blocks. It's the largest of all the concentric diamonds, so that's an accomplishment. Obviously, I'm ignoring some of the "off color" blocks for now . . . like those red ones.