Thursday, February 7, 2013

Dear Jane & Miracle Worker Status

In case you want some mood music happening!

My sewing area has looked like this for months now.  I have been somewhat quiet on my blog for a couple reasons.  My migraines continue to be a constant source of interruption to my life.  Do you know that commercial....Do you have a migraine life?  YES.....ick!   And the other reason is I have had my head down and nose to the sewing machine working on my Dear Jane quilt.  So when I feel good, I haven't wanted to spend extra time on the computer, even though I do enjoy blogging.  It is like a vacuum cleaning on your time.  


I am going to share a couple ways that I came up in cutting my fabric as I sewed each block.  This would work well if you are doing a sampler type quilt or any piece where you are doing many different blocks and not a quilt where all the blocks are the same.  For starters, I cut my background fabric which happened to be muslin into strips all different widths....like 1", 1.25", 1.5", 1.75", 2", etc.  When I got to the bigger sizes 3"+ I cut every .5" at that point.  These became my working strips.


You can see them at the top left in a pile.  In front of them you can see a pile of small pieces and strips.  These are the scraps as I trim off the excess while foundation piecing.  I go to that fabric first when I need to cover a small patch and if I don't have something big enough, then I measure my patch as they are printed on vellum....shown in the center.  Whatever that measurement is....... is the strip I pull from my strip pile.  Then I personally use the Carol Doak method of foundation piecing using a postcard and an add 1/4" ruler or on this project I used an add a 1/8" ruler a lot.  Doing it this way, eliminates waste of fabric.....the pieces I threw away were literally crumbs and on a project this big.....it makes a difference on yardage.


So yesterday was a huge day in Dear Jane world around here, I finished my last triangle in the morning, in the afternoon I added the adjustment strips that needed to be added before adding the triangle border.  I spent the evening after the Silver Fox left for work, & added the triangle borders.  I must say...... I sat in my chair and just stared at it for quite awhile before going to bed last night.  

 I started this baby in 1998.  Now don't think I have worked on this continuously....there have been many times it has been in it's drawer waiting for my return!


I need to embroider my signature and I am going to include some names of our relatives that have fought in the Civil War as well.  It will also have a scalloped edge all the way around.  I added the strips around the outside for that today.  I won't work on that part until I have the center quilted.


 My plan is to complete it during the years of the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War that is happening right now.


So I do have until 2015......hopefully it will be done before then!

Dear Jane Love!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...


Your quilt is absolutely beautiful. You can be proud of your work and the fact that you completed the top. What an accomplishment.

My husband sometimes gets migraines and he takes Excedrin Extra Strength at the first sign of a migraine and that does the trick. Perhaps you have already tried them.

Good luck with the quilting.
Charlotte

Anonymous said...

please try magnesium for your Migraines it works
I went to menys drs and this what really works

Anonymous said...

Sheri: What a beautiful piece of your God-given talents!! I would love to see it in person some day.
You know how I share your grief over migraines. I have had 153 now in the 3 years we have lived in the "healthy" state of Arizona!! May we be able to find the cause of these monisters as the magnesium 800 mg for two years, plus a boat load of other suplements has not been the answer! Special love, Nj

Patty said...

Stunning!!!!!

KarenQuilt said...

What an accomplishment! I would never be brave enough to tackle this bc I know the unfinished project would haunt me the rest of my life!

Janice said...

An absolutely beautiful Dear Jane quilt top. Your work is amazing. I have the book and have 5 or so blocks done. I applaud you in continuing so many years on one project. Thanks for the strip cutting tip for the background fabric.

sue bennett said...

This is beautiful. Great job with it.

sunny said...

Awesome! I love looking at and admiring Dear Jane quilts, but I would never attempt one myself. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

What gorgeous work! You have done Ms. Stickle proud with this accomplishment! :)

Renate Bischoff said...

Your DJ is very beautiful!
Have a nice day!
Renate from Germany

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

Congratulations on your masterpiece! It is beautiful. I think at last count, I had 169 blocks. Someday I will make more progress on it.