Oh, Dear Jane!

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I wish I could say these lovely blue and white Dear Jane blocks were mine. In fact, they were made by Sherri Crisp of Knoxville, Tennessee. (Sherri and I are in the same Reach for the Stars cohort; I posted pictures of her latest sampler blocks in this post about a month ago.)

Sherri is one of those quilters (like me) who work on multiple projects at the same time. It seems to me that Dear Jane is one of those quilt designs that lends itself to working in fits and starts. Something about sampler quilts, perhaps?

The original Dear Jane was made by Jane A. Stickle of Shaftsbury, Vermont and completed in 1863:

original dear jane quilt

(Photograph by Ken Burris, Shelburne VT, courtesy of the Bennington Museum and the Vermont Quilt Festival)

Thanks to Brenda Papadakis, who drafted the 225 designs that appear in the original quilt and compiled them in the book Dear Jane (published in 1996 by EZ Quilting by Wrights), modern-day quilters can create their own versions.

Sherri’s inspiration was this blue and white version she found on Pinterest:

Jane Stickle Dear Jane quilt

(If anyone knows who made this quilt or the source of the photo, please let me know so that I can update my post.) 

Sherri has also made five of the border triangles, employing some clever fussy-cutting:

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Breaking it down, the Dear Jane quilt contains 169 blocks, 52 setting triangles, and four kite corners. These triangle blocks finish at 5″ x 8″, and the square blocks at the top of the post finish at 4½”. Can you even imagine how many teeny tiny pieces there are in a finished quilt?

“I’m not sure if I will ever finish this quilt,” writes Sherri, “but I am having fun playing with it. I can make two to three blocks with only one fat quarter, so I am having so much fun buying fabric.” And I am having fun watching Sherri’s blocks come together!

 

 

 

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One Response to Oh, Dear Jane!

  1. Leslie Goldsmith says:

    just guessing that this might be considered a difficulty level somewhere beyond waaay advanced! How fabulous and what a great lifetime project for a young, fantastic quilter.

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