Last night I attended the first club meeting for Dear Jane at
The Quilt Merchant. Oh dear Lord, what have I done to myself yet again. I seem to have this un-ending habit of getting really involved and psyched about new projects. I literally have a bazillion (ok maybe not that many - but their are a lot) projects either started or that I'm stash building for. Good grief....
Now, I'm back to being addicted to this:
You see - I did start this quilt probably 5 or 6 years ago. But now I've changed my mind on the background fabric. Here's a glimpse of the blocks I've had in storage from the "Old Dear Jane In Progress":
But of course, nope - cannot continue on with these blocks and this theme as planned - nope - I now have it in my head to start over. Good grief.....
I absolutely could not get this Jane Stickle person out of my fuzzy head today. I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting ready for 2 quilt shows which will take me away from home with my darling kids for over 3 weeks straight. I'm cutting and folding fabric and thinking about
Lady Jane
I'm packing rubbermaid totes with fabrics and notions and again she's in my head.
I take my kids out to lunch and I see the Dear Jane Quilt imagine in my head as I try to eat my rather bland and boring salad.
I run to Barnes and Noble to look for a Journal to keep all my thoughts in while working on Lady Jane - again the Dear Jane thing.
I get back to work pricing fabric bundles and get this - I write Dear Jane on one of the fat quarter bundle tags.
Crud....
So I quit for the evening and did this...
I pulled fabric. This is how I work - I just grab stacks off my shelf and I put them in piles, I'm a mad women when I start to pull fabrics. I have no rhyme, nor reason when I pick fabrics for a scrappy style quilt. I just do it. I lay them out, take a picture and see what I think. I toss the fabric on my studio floor and stand way back and see how it looks. I've completely lost my mind this evening. I'm doing a Dear Jane quilt - all scrappy - background fabrics included. And from the photo above, I think you'll agree - it works! It's going to be awesome - just hope I can get it done in my lifetime.
I showed my husband the picture of the finished quilt in the book. He loved it - said "That's a cool quilt". "Looks like it will take a while to make". I replied - yep. He studies it and says " So, I'll probably be retired before it gets done (keep in mind - he's 44 years young) - I replied - yep and called him a smartie pants.
I also told him, If I ever get this quilt done - he would be required to build a glass case so that we could display it because there would be no one sleeping underneath this baby!
Here's a picture of me and the hubby in St. Louis a couple months ago:
Isn't he cute??? Just love my wind blown hair look!
I really started studying some of the blocks in this quilt - and bingo another cool idea popped into my head. My partner in crime who will be making her own version of The Dear Jane -
is guilty for putting this idea in my head actually - Miss Pam Buda - the
Queen Mum of the Make-Do craze! I think I may just to purposely "make-do" on some of my blocks just because I can and I want too!
If you are not sure what a "Make-Do" is ---- well just click on the little link next and you can read all about it!
Here's a few close up's of some of the fabrics I've chosen so far - we all enjoy eye candy right???
Nice looking bunch of fabrics ????
Well, another really cool thing I found out about last night ----
The Quilt Merchant is cutting "Sweet Sixteenth" bundles of fabrics for this quilt and offering those up in Batiks, 30's repros, Kaffe and Civil War Repros - how tempting - we always could use more fabric! The Sweet Sixteenth bundles are Fat Sixteenths of fabric in cute tempting bundles. A Fat Sixteenth is roughly 9" x 10 1/2" or so - about the size of a sheet of paper - just think of a fat quarter divide in fourths - 4 fat sixteenths equal a fat quarter etc....
They also have the Dear Jane Book:
The Dear Jane Rulers:
And I'm not 100% positive if they have the EQ Dear Jane program - but I bet they can get you one if you'd like!
If I've peaked your interest or given you a little nudge to get to work on your own Dear Jane....
give
The Quilt Merchant a little jingle and tell Docia her adopted daughter made you call and tempted you to play with Dear Jane. Docia or her daughter in law - Miss Beth will get you all set up and on your Dear Jane journey in no time!
Now, I'm off to play a little tonight. I'm having one of my "I just cannot focus on work" moments. I've clocked over 70 hours of work this week alone, so it's time for this chick to go fondle some fabric - I'll get back to the grind tomorrow.
Enjoy your evening!
I'm doing a Dear Jane Quilt - Yippee!!
(disclaimer - I have no intention of rushing through this project. I have no clue when I'll actually be able to start on it - and I'm sure I'm going to fall prey to being the last person in the club to get the quilt done. Darn - I'm not even sure if I can get even one block finished by the next club meeting. I make no guarantees that I'll whip this quilt out over the next year (not gonna happen - I can tell you that right now!!). I'm just along for the ride and I'm going to enjoy myself - finished quilt or not, I'm declaring this a "me" project - just because I can! So if you see me at a quilt show, at the quilt shop or chat with me on FaceBook and ask me how my Dear Jane's going - my reply will be "oh just fine - I'm enjoying the ride")
