UPDATE: Dear Jane - January, 2012

In September of 2009 I started a long term journey ~ a Dear Jane Quilt was born. A very long term project was planned and now I find myself 2 years into the journey and I have completed 37 blocks out of 225. A challenge was thrown down to one of the girls in our online Quilting group to complete one block a day and hopefully have the top to complete by Quilt Camp which is held in November. Now we all know I can never let a challenge go to waste & even though this challenge was taken up by Belinda; I decided to jump aboard and attempt to complete 110 blocks to equal Kirsty's current tally. I think it's do able and if I keep up the pace that I've kept going in January, then anything is possible! I've been busy prepping and planning, sewing and cursing, journalling and scanning blocks and each night I find myself dreaming of them. I am planning an update at the end of each month to track my progress. At the top of my blog, you will see I have created a page listing all the information I'm gathering on the blocks, including a picture of my quilt to date with all completed blocks highlighted, as well as links to the girls who are also Dear Jane'ing along with me.

Each block is a mere 5" (4.5" finished) and some of these blocks have up to 49 pieces in each! That is a lot of piecing and the blocks can take as little as 10mins to prep and sew and up to an hour (or more) for the difficult blocks. Fiddly little buggers! I finished my 25th Block during January and counted up the number of pieces used - 546! I tried explaining this to my husband (he who doesn't understand quilting and all it entails… except the money side - he totally understands that I spend FAR too much money on fabrics LOL) 25 blocks all at 5" - 546 pieces! That is a lot of work so far and I'm not even close to finished!

As I find myself further into this quilt, I have had to set up a few documents to help me keep it all together and keep me on track (already I have flicked a few of the colours I originally did and re-done them in new colours) I have a graph of the colours I want it to be. I have boxes of already used Dear Jane Fabrics and boxes of Un-used potential Dear Jane Fabrics in my sewing room. I am hoping to do each square a different colour but that will depend on finances and storage space. I can fit only so much fabric into my small craft space!

This was always intended to be my learning quilt. So often there are parts of quilting we don't particularly like to do. Mine is the basting. Then there are other parts of quilting not yet tried and always put off for fear of being wrong. Well this quilt has helped me overcome my fears. I have done everything on these 37 blocks and feel rather adept at the full aray of quilting techniques and while I am far from perfect at any of them, I feel more confident. There has been machine pieced and foundation pieced blocks. Appliqué and Reverse Appliqué (which I have fallen in love with). Paper pieced and Hand sewn. Plastic templates, manilla templates, freezer paper templates. At times I've found myself confused and bamboozled but it hasn't stopped me yet. I am actually feeling obsessed with these teeny tiny blocks. I am churning them out at a fast pace and loving the process. I wonder how Jane felt when she made her quilt? I wonder how the loyal followers those attempting their own Dear Jane feel. Are they loving the process as much as I?

My favourite part of the quilt so far (apart from the cuteness of the 5" blocks!) is the journaling. We all know how much I love to write and this is no exception! On the CD provided there is an option to journal your progress. I have written a single page on each finished block and stored it in a folder for safe keeping. Each page contains the name of the blocks, date completed, number of pieces and any notes on the block. It also gives you a spot to write about current events and I am also glueing a piece of the fabric used and making notes about where I got it from and how much I paid. And a small colour picture of my completed block after it's scanned in! It is really comprehensive and with 37 pages now completed - I have already created a gorgeous journal to keep forever.

  

Each block is printed out (depending on what style it is in) and kept in a working clear binder, a small piece of fabric is also included. Each block is marked off on my master chart and then I scan them & add them to my virtual quilt. I won't lie, journalling the journey is extremely time consuming and fiddly, yet I am so glad I decided to do it too - I am creating my own piece of history!

    

Blocks completed up to January 2012!   

    

Can you spot the ones I did twice? I had decided to re-do three of them because I didn't like the original colour way chosen. Luckily they were easily prepped and sewed up this morning in 10 mins!