Snow Crystal

This block was completed some time after 1 AM on Sunday. Why so late? Partly because I was running errands during the day, and mostly because I'm a night owl!

Redraft
I redrafted two aspects of my newest Dear Jane block, D11 - Snow Crystal. (See the photo below.) First, Jane's central piece is a bit ambiguous. Is is floating? Is it a square or a rectangle? Brenda interpreted it as a rectangle but I decided Jane meant for it to be a square. That meant I had to redraw the square and the 4 small triangles.

When I can, I prefer to piece those small diamonds rather than appliqueing, so I add a seam for that, too.

Fabric

For the central piece and the diamonds, I used this fabric, which was also used for Rick's Volleyball Net. I bought this fabric in the last month or two and it's my new favorite yellow fabric. I'm in a bit of a panic because I only bought 4 inches. You read that right -- four inches. I was being frugal and had not a clue that I would love it so much. I can't even remember where I bought it!

A dragonfly fabric was used for the remaining yellow pieces. It's rare for me to not add a fussy cut whenever I can, but in this case I just cut the pieces randomly. This fabric was also used in F7 - Star Struck.

Template for the Large Triangle

I found minor differences in the 3 corners of my template for the large triangles (C). To be safe, I marked the template so that I knew which triangle corner points toward the block corner. (See pink arrow.) As I cut those 4 pieces, I marked that corner on each one.

Hand Piecing Sequence

I was pleasantly surprised when the hand piecing went smoothly. In case the sequence was the magic, I want to share it with you.

• 
  
  Sew the 4 white triangles (B) to the central square (A).
• 
  
  Add the 4 large triangles (C).
• 
  
  Sew pieces D and E to the large triangles (C), and complete the seam that runs into the corner of the block.
• 
  
  This is key. First, sew the seam that joins the diamond (F) to piece D, then sew the diamond (F) to piece E.  If you attach piece E before D, a number of errors can easily occur. One little 1/8 inch will throw everything into a wonk. That's how it is with sewing! LOL!

Dear Jane Progress = 132 Blocks

As of June 27, 2010, I have 37 blocks to go.