Saturday, January 06, 2018

Back on the Dear (Crazy) Jane Wagon

After spending the last several years saying "this is the year I get that quilt finished" I have decided that 2018 is a good year to finally finish it!  The laugh is that when I first started this I thought it would be fun to do in a year's time.  Many years later I am still working away at it!

One of the hurdles for me has been overthinking it.  Because my quilt is blue and white, I started to worry about how the different shades of blue would work together.  Would I have a bunch of lights in one area and darks in another?  I'm also trying to make every block different, but that's a challenge in itself to organize and keep track of.  I was definitely doing everything I could to make this quilt harder than it already is!

To start with, I decided to sew the completed rows together so it looks like I have actually made progress.  I thought that this would actually help me get excited about completing more blocks so that I can sew more rows together - and now that I've added row B to row A, I know I am on the right track! 

Pardon the poor photo, but my design wall is full, so the floor has to stand in.  At least I vacuumed!
Ok, that's pretty darn gorgeous!  I decided that instead of making long sashing rows that I would sew a strip to the side and top of each block.  This helps when sewing them together to keep them even. 

Last night I worked on block F10  It was a bit of a tricky one, but it came out pretty well!  Today I want to finish F11, which is definitely a tough one.  I found a good online tutorial to help me, though.  I still don't know whether I will quilt this by hand or by machine, but I suppose by the time I get there I will know what I want to do.  I'm pretty excited to get this finished, so I am hoping I can sustain that and push through the hard blocks ahead. 

Jane, you were one crazy lady to come up with this quilt, but I'm just as crazy as you and I'll be getting this done this year!  Woohoo!

2 comments:

Barb Neiwert said...

Oooohhh, I'm duly impressed with your ambition and follow-through on this project. It is beautiful now and will be gorgeous when it's all finished. What a lot of challenging blocks in this one! Have fun with the process, and keep up your good work!

NaplesQuilter said...

I too am trying to finish my two Dear Janes this year. I love your blues and whites. Don’t overthink it - Long before you have your 169 interior blocks done (I do!) you will realize that all blocks will blend and form a beautiful whole, and no block really stands out. I’m on the triangles and beginning to realize there’s still lots and lots of work to do! Good luck, and keep posting, and keep working on it!