My Dear Jane Journey has begun...

I finally started my Dear Jane blocks. This picture shows the first 9 in the first row. 

This project all started with my Priceless Quilter's group.  Around March 1 Faye suggested to our little group that we join in a class at the Corn Wagon on this two year project.  Several of us decided to join in including Faye, Theresa, myself, Linda, and Deb.   I know that Faye finished her first row during the month of March.  The group goal is a row a month.

I fell in love with a line of fabric called "Cottage Charm" by Henry Glass.  I've already made a whole quilt out of the browns, greens, yellows, and pinks.  I have large enough pieces left over to base my Dear Jane quilt out of these fabrics.  I purchased the blues and reds that also go with the collection along with several 8th yard pieces of matching fabrics.

The biggest hold up for getting me started was the background fabric.  Generally I like my quilts to have a variety of background fabrics to get a "scrappy" look.  I just felt that Dear Jane was soooo busy without adding more variety to it.  My conflict was...do I spend a lot of money to buy a whole bolt of fabric right now or do I buy little bits at a time and do a variety of backgrounds.  I was even considering using shirting fabrics.  I concluded that a simple white on white was best.  I ordered an entire bolt of background fabric for this quilt.  Linda and I actually split a bolt because we found a white on white that was 108" wide.  We just split it up the middle and gave each other half.

I really want to make this quilt the way Jane did with all the blocks in the same spot, but to counter the effects of how busy it looks to me I decided to run the same colors diagonally through the quilt with each color merging into the next.  I hope that this effect will give the eye a place to rest occassionally.

The first three blocks From Left to Right: 

A1 Pinwheel Gone Awry:  I foundation pieced this block.  It was rough.  I'm just so particular about points matching perfectly -- they don't. I picked and sewed several times and ended up living with it.  I made this one very late at night after a long day at work.  It took me about 1/2 hour and has 28 pieces.

A-2 One-Two Buckle my Shoe:  I'm very pleased with this little guy.  It is also foundation pieced and took about 20 minutes and has 32 pieces.  I made my own pattern for this one because there were unnecessary seams in a few places.  I think any ellimination of seams always looks better.

A-3 Hunter's Moon:  This one was needle turn appliqued.  It took me close to an hour and has 5 pieces.  I think it's kind of cute but not perfect.

From left to right:

A-4 Courtney's Stethoscope:  This little orange and yellow one is also paperpieced.  I used the program's foundation pattern and wish I had not.  I struggled with it a little and think using my own pattern would have been simpler.  This block has 23 pieces.

A-5 Cathie's Campfire:  I fussy cut the flowers for this piece.  It is foundation pieced except the five fussy cut squares.  This block has 29 pieces.

A-6 Uncle Homer:  This was by far the easiest and fastest.  I did not foundation piece it -- just typical rotary cut.  This block has 9 pieces.

These three blocks took me about an hour to complete.

Left to right:

A-7 Dad's Plaids:  I really LOVE this little block but am not so pleased with my workmanship.  I curve pieced it -- a little challenging because the pieces are so small.  It took me one hour and has 12 pieces.  I may redo it in applique.

A-8 Florence Nightingale:  I foundation pieced this one; it took 20 minutes and has 11 pieces.  It was very easy and fun.

A-9 Cabin Fever:  Cabin fever is my favorite block.  It is foundation pieced and took 30 minutes and has 45 pieces.  It came together nice and easy.

If you don't count the time learning the computer program, time spent designing my own blocks, and selecting fabrics, this project has taken an approximate of 4 hours and 40 minutes so far and has a total of 194 pieces.