Journeys with Dear Jane: Baby Janes in the making and complete
 

Well..... here we are!! ready to start the third "Dear Jane" thread. I have sent out 137 PMs to QB members who either started with me in 2012, have Baby Jane UFOs or WIPs, or have been intrigued with Jane and want some company while watching their Baby Jane "grow up" :o

I hope to "see" all of you from time to time - we all know life gets in the way from time to time. When it does, I hope it will mostly be for a happy reason!! The important thing is that you have fun - don't worry about 'when' you get it done, but do try to add your baby to the growing number of "baby Janes" since the original was completed back in 1863. It will be a real tribute to both Jane A. Blakely Stickle and Brenda Manges Papadakis who took great care in drafting all of Jane's blocks: squares, triangles, and kites.

There are RULES - besides having fun...
You MUST have either a book or software. I may give my own cutting directions from time to time to offer a different approach to a block along the way, but giving exact instructions on how to make every aspect of Jane would be an infringement of copyright.

Follow the general board rules please... no insults, keep things upbeat, no politics and no dwelling on personal issues [I had one of my posts pulled for that reason]. There are other threads that can be started for this.

enough of the rules [I think!!]

There will be a second thread I will begin shortly to which I will be the only one able to post [I still need to ask PatriceJ how this works] It will consist only of tutorials and tips. At some point I will also post links to post #s for tutorials and advice given on the 2d cyber DJ thread which ran from 2012-March of 2014.
My first post on that thread contained lots of info. If you've never read it this may be a good time to check it out. The one thing that failed to work last time was a weekly "chat session." A couple of people showed up once, but that was it. If someone feels they need to be "walked through" a particular block construction or has a specific situation that requires some continual feedback, PM me and set up a chat time for the board chat room.

I'm re-posting the schedule that was used on the last thread. There will be members at various points, working on many different blocks. Don't let this keep you from posting! If we start finding it too confusing, I will make sure that the "blocks of the week" are posted on the parallel thread. Please jump in wherever you want. The schedule is for guidance - most of us found it useful. I integrated blocks of different levels of difficulty, based on Brenda's difficulty charts found in her software. The schedule is 'beginner heavy' at the start with triangles added a little later and scattered throughout the remainder of the schedule. I've tried to schedule "breaks" or "catch-up" weeks around holidays.

If you are just starting, don't get discouraged if you fall behind. Am I done?? No - but I'm sort of close. I have one center block remaining. It is "L10" - I call it my Mom block because Jane Stickle's fabric reminds me of one of Mom's dresses. She passed away 1-1-08 and I saved some of her clothes in a bag in storage thinking some day I will make a quilt of my favorite memories of Mom. I have to go to storage and locate that dress so I can finish the center of my Baby Jane! I often lagged a little behind. When I was first asked to start this new thread, I thought... but I'm almost done! Now I'm thinking I'd like to see others finish and being almost done means I have all those pictures already so this time I will actually be able to post the 'weeks blocks' on time!!

Without further ramble... here is the schedule. There is much more to cover, but I will do that separately :)
Looking forward to all those pictures!!!!
Cre8tvlwyr [yes, I am an attorney, but not practicing and I much prefer to be cre8tv!!]
[aka.... Monica (real name) Gus (preferred name...why? because it was given to me by my DGS when he was about 16 mo old and it has stuck!):)]

Attachment 465834

Good luck on your journey - I admire those that attempt the Dear Jane quilt - it is beautiful but I am not ready to tackle that project but will look in and admire your progress.

Hi Gus, I have followed you to here (up 'til now I haven't had a PM - maybe later )

There is a great article and tutorial on the Dear Jane scalloped border in the March / April issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited - which came the post here in the UK today - really worth looking at.

Lovely to be part of the new thread Gus and looking forward to carrying on !
Regards,
Dot.

Gus, Thank you for all the time and effort you put towards this project. You're such a great Jane example.

Dotty,
I just PM'd you :p

For those of you I didn't PM who have been 'expecting one'.... it's not that I don't love you - I had so many to send and was limited to 5 at a time and if I did it more than 4 times at once, the system shut me out. So I did not PM those who have been posting on a regular basis lately... don't take it personally. I sent out 137 and I wanted to get this one up.
Gus

Thank you for hosting this thread; I hope it encourages me to dig out my Dear Jane book and CD and stuff and actual work on it...when time to do so presents itself. I will be following this thread until I can have that time...trusting the Man above to give me that time soon.

Wow Monica you are on top of thing. Received your PM and was happy to see this post. I am planning on making great progress. Blocks, Tris and corners all completed. Sashing and scalloped edge finish in 2014. Will take planning on my part :)

Judy in Phx, AZ

QuiltingNinaSue...."that Man" certainly has plans of His own some days doesn't He??!!??

Thanks Judy - did you indicate you are done with all individual parts??? picture please!!

Here is my Baby Jane so far..... toying with the idea of a name... along the way I thought of "Not Quite Jane" as I messed up here and there and I do want to change the location of some of my blocks... hmmm realize I failed to put the pic of M4 in my chart...
[ATTACH=CONFIG]465849[/ATTACH]
Gus......[hope it gives some an incentive to keep going!]

by the way - this is Sharon Mastbrook's chart and if you have the software, you have the ability to put your own pictures in the places. It can be tricky - I had to email EQ to get the program to work properly. This will be one of the things I address on our parallel thread when it's up.

Color Planning Pointers:
For those of you starting Jane... if you want the "around the world" look with a color scheme starting with the center and 'color circles' around the center as the original Jane seems to follow, I would advise you do the following...

Either copy the chart on page 12 of your book, or print out a blank block chart from the software [or use graph paper and mark off 13 x 13 blocks] Start with a color in the center [seven rows down, seven blocks/columns across] and either draw a line connecting corners in a diamond pattern representing the four blocks around the center, eight blocks around those, etc. Some people make their blocks by starting with the center block [green or whatever you decide] then making the four block row [some of these are NOT easy and I think many beginners have been turned completely off by doing so!]
If you do keep a chart that indicates blocks in the same color scheme, you can refer to it when you follow a schedule and use the chart to decide which fabrics to use for each block.

Hope this helps! I did NOT do it and am not sure if I can get a "around the world" pattern to work with my blocks.

Gus

WOW Gus - your baby Jane is fabulous - you are so nearly there - the link to my wall is below if anyone would like to have a look !
Dot.