Fireweed Flower

M3 - Fireweed Flower has been a major stumbling block for many a Janiac. It's all those Y-seams; they are murder -- especially on a sewing machine. Luckily, I hand-piece my Dear Jane blocks.

The Name
What is a Fireweed anyway? Have a look here.

G11 - Decisions, Decisions

Fabric
I have very few yellow fabrics. Long ago, I decide that it was OK to repeat fabrics in this quilt but I do not repeat fabrics in adjacent blocks. As the end of this project nears, that has become harder and harder to do.

I finally decided on the fabric with the blue bubbles. It's only been used in G11 - Decisions, Decisions, one of my early blocks. A little note, the diamonds in G11 were appliqued. If I was making this block today, I would redraft it to match Jane's block piecing the diamonds into the block,which would result in nice sharp points. That would have increased the number of pieces from 13 to 25.

In M3, the central square is white but I decided to add a third fabric. I considered many options until I realized the dotted fabric would coordinate perfectly with the blue bubbles.

Construction
Construction was progressing nicely . . . until I made a foolish error. I wanted to take photos but my camera's status has moved from "critical" to "deceased." Then I remembered my scanner. Here's my sequence, my advice, and my boo-boo (see photo below):

1. Pay close attention to what pieces are mirror images of each other -- especially the white strips on either side of each triangle.
2. Notice that the diamonds are not symmetrical. After you cut the template, flip it around on top of the draft to notice the difference and then mark the "inside" edges (that join to the white strips) on your template and in the margins of your fabric diamonds. 
3. Stitch the white strips on both long sides of each triangle. Join the shorter strips first.
4. Join the four triangles into two pairs carefully matching mirror images. This is just a tiny seam along the ends of the white strips.
5. Sew one of the pairs to the central square.
6. Sew the other pair of triangles to the central square. Remember to sew all of those tiny seams that join the white strips to each other.
7. Sew in the four diamonds matching the edges with the seam allowance markings (step #2) to the white strips. The center octagon is done!
8. Join all 8 white pieces pieces to make the outer frame.
9. Carefully compare your octagon and frame to the photo before joining these two major pieces. You do not want to make the same mistake I did! My heart sank when I saw my error, but I could not live with it, so I carefully took out all those tiny stitches and fixed the block.  Ta-daa! 

Dear Jane Progress = 163 blocks, 3,384 pieces, 9 columns, 9 rows

As of Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 2011, one more column is complete. I have 6 blocks to go!