Keeping busy

My way to a good "diet" is to stay up in my sewing room, far from any snacks, or to do hand sewing.  I've been busy with both, although I'm skeptical that I've lost much weight.  It's a process.  I had my annual wellness check on Tuesday afternoon and received a "clean bill of health," a direct quote from the physician's assistant I see.  She even said that she isn't concerned about my weight because I am healthy.   Still, my clothes are tighter than before, indicating a post-holiday need to reduce.  

Fussy little Dear Jane blocks took center stage this week.  There are some sites online with paper piecing patterns, and I found myself extremely frustrated with one of them.  Every block I made ended up far too small, requiring the addition of 1" coping strips to two sides.  It just looked sloppy.  I ended up throwing two blocks away.  

The other site purports to end up with blocks that are 5.5" unfinished, but as I sew them, they are just right.  And making my own patterns based on the drawings in the book still seems very viable and fun to me.  I guess I'll do a combination of things, which is typical for Dear Jane.

When I first decided to work on another Dear Jane, I joined a couple of Facebook groups with "assignments," both weekly and monthly.  I thought they'd be good to get me started and so I wouldn't just work on the easier blocks.  The monthly group suggests making 12 blocks a month in order to finish within the year.   I guess the people who do achieve this goal don't work on anything else!   The other group seems more my style, suggesting one or two blocks a week.  

Here are my first six blocks, including the two I made before.  I made G-7 (Indianapolis) over again and then discovered that the center circle for A-2 (Sweet Tater Pie) was the same size.  So I gave it a whirl.   

I may get around to making a couple more today... or not!  Yesterday we drove over to Burlington to Paul's eye specialist, so I didn't get a lot done, and today we have already gone to the grocery store over somewhat slick streets.  There's a mix of snow, ice, and rain and gray sky making it a lazy sort of day.