Dear Jane - next questions
 

How did you choose the fabric for your Dear Jane quilt? Did you sew from your stash, purchase fabrics as you did the blocks or buy a collection of fat quarters? Did you use the same background fabric in each block or did you vary that also? Approximately what yardage did you use for background and colors?

The fabric I used for the background was a white on white and the blocks were from my stash and reproduction civil war fabrics that I used in another quilt. Most of the blocks only need small amounts of fabric, so a fat quarter is usually plenty. I have a long way to go since I have only completed about 80 blocks. I do have all the fabrics in small baggies for each block, now all I have to do is sew it!!
Sue

I'm making one with red pieces and muslin background, one with a pale orangey flower background, and one with scrappy pieces and background, varying all the blocks.

I did about 50+ blocks and tried to stay close to the original colors with reproduction fabrics or "old fashioned" looking prints. It was kind of starting to get stressful to do that so I put it away for awhile (like 6 years, lol). My background is a creamy solid. Since I started DJ, I've become MUCH more relaxed in fabric choices thanks to Bonnie Hunter. I may go back to DJ and stick with original colors but just use whatever is in the stash - reproduction or not. For many of the blocks, even a fat eighth is a lot of fabric. If you like reproductions, I would check around on line and see if there are some nice fat eighth bundles, or if you are in a guild or quilting group see if you can exchange some fabrics or gather scraps from friends. BTW, I have the book, but when I was really getting into it I bought the CD. That's how I learned to paperpiece. :-)

I started with a tea-dyed muslin and two sets seem to have evolved -
one is with blues and the other is oranges/rusts/brown.

I liked to see how different each block looked when done in a different fabric.

I used mostly fabrics from my stash, but if I saw a fabric that I loved, I bought it and used it. For the background of each block I used white on white, but not all the same white on white. I had a variety of them and used them.

I just took from my stash. Every background is different (I did repeat backgrounds). I did not make my Dear Jane in civil war fabrics, I just used from my scraps. I did not want the quilt to be so old looking. I used what I had and just love the way it came out, there is more life and pizazz to my version.