Quiltingboard Forums - My own personal "Legacy" Quilt --- Not a Dear Jane, but my 'Dear Jenn'

This quilt is comprised of 99 blocks that finish at 4". I have always loved the Dear Jane quilts and admired them for all the dedication, skill, patience, and love that goes into each and every block. As much as I love looking at them, I didn't have a strong desire to make one. I wanted something a little different - my own blocks that I could pick out myself.
So this quilt evolved, into something like a biography, something like a charm bracelet, something I could immerse myself into while going through what can only be described as a mid-life identity crisis. Last year I felt I was falling apart in so many ways (nothing tragic.... just empty nest and career change). Anyway, I created, drew, took measurements, scoured magazines and books and blocks to use in this project, spent hours and hours not only piecing and appliqueing the blocks, but also picking the right fabrics - ALL FROM STASH. I felt that I was getting more insane, not less. (Why did it take me so long to pick out three coordinating shades of pink for a rose block anyway?)
I built this from the center out, incorporating some blocks that are straight set, and some that are on point. There is a representation of a little boy, a bride, a Diet Coke bottle, a sewing machine, a lamb inside an Easter Basket, a cruise ship, a Leo, a star block that my quilting mentor made for one of her own quilts before she passed away. There is a traditional Double T block and that has sybolism in that my father's name ends in Double T (Everett); and my son's name ends in Double T (Brett). A cruise ship, an apple, a Rockingham Beauty (Rockingham is also a county in my state).

Without rambling too much: The pattern is somewhat based on a pattern called "Magic Carpet" which appears in the Better Homes and Gardens Book titled 501 Quilt Blocks. The pattern shown called for 144 blocks. I stopped at 99, so had to do some figuring on how to make it work. Many blocks are from that book, but not all. Some are entirely my own design.

The back is a different story. When my son was 12, he liked to sew with me. He made the nine-patches with the bright colors and the white. Then I put his old blocks together and added some orphan blocks.

Just needs binding now.