Returning to Jane

Under construction: M13 - Lynette's Diamond

Lost and Found
For quite some time, I abandoned Jane; I've not touched the project since November.My theme fabric is a tiny bit of fabric, which I used for the center block (shown below) and I was saving for the four corner blocks. I was working from the center out so I had time to find it. When I had only 13 blocks to go, I knew it was time to pull out the theme fabric. That's when everything came to a screeching halt. The fabric was missing and my life was hectic. The theme fabric has since been found and I finally have some time to work on this project again.

G7 - Indianapolis

Running Short on Ivory

New problem: I'm running out of ivory fabric. The early editions of Brenda's book gave the wrong amount. It has not helped that I've made several blocks more than once. I think I'll have enough ivory for all my blocks (since I do not plan to make the triangle blocks) but I'm not sure I'll have enough for the sashing. Any suggestions?

For now, I plan to find another ivory fabric for my sashing. I'm thinking of using solid pieces of my print fabrics for the triangles. A friend did that and it's very pretty. I'm considering piecing the corner kites as I think those blocks are especially pretty.

Dear Jane Event in June
On Saturday, July 9, 2011, the New England Quilt Museum will hold A Gathering of Janiacs with Brenda Papadakis. I'm waiting for the details but I know I want to be there! The event has inspired me to get back to working on my quilt. Given my internal debates about the sashing, border, and quilting of this project, it will be helpful to see other Janers approached this project.

What Was I Thinking . . .

. . . when I bought less than 10 inches of my theme fabric!?!  I had no idea how much I loved that pink-red combo, the sage green, the limey yellow, and the watercolor effect of some of the flowers and leaves. The fabric was purchased nearly 12 years ago, so I have no hope of finding more. It would also be great for English paper piecing. The local fabric store (long since closed) seemed to be having a hard time selling it. It's my theory that this fabric did not sell well because it uses that mustard yellow and it mixes different illustration styles. Nice thing about quilting: I can pick and choose the parts of the fabric I prefer. Can you picture an entire Dear Jane Quilt in this fabric? If you have some of it around that you are willing to part with, please leave me a comment or email me. Let's make a deal!. The selvage reads "Mayar Silk, Inc."

New Approach
Usually, I draft one block at a time, stitch it and move on to the next block, however because I have so little of this fabric, I drafted all four corner blocks (A1, A13, M1, M13) so that I can cut them out at the same time and think through my use of the theme fabric. At least two of the corner blocks needed redrafting: On M13 - Lynette's Diamond, Jane's center is made of four pieces, but I'm going to just cut one large square because it will allow a nice fussy cut. I also shifted the ratios of the pieces to more closely match Jane's block. You can see the beginning of this block (at the top of this posting) but you won't see it finished for a while, because I can't decide what I want in the center. In part, that will be decided by what's left of the theme fabric after I make the other three corner blocks. Stay tuned!