Making Plans and Gathering

Well, I've sorted and added links so that you can see the "real" quilt that was made by Jane A Stickle...and there's a link too, to her genealogy. I love history, and the history involved in this quilt fasinates me...I so wish we knew more about her and her life!

We know that she completed the quilt in 1863. The Civil War was going strong. When tho, did she start the quilt? I haven't seen where anyone knows that answer. Considering that it's a slow build for modern quilters that have all of the benefits of today's technology, and the blocks are already designed for them, I can only imagine that Jane took more than a couple of years to piece those 5602 pieces of fabric together, quilt the top, and bind those scallops (a challenge in itself!).

For my own "Journey with Dear Jane", I'm planning to use the reproduction fabrics that represent the Civil War era, fabrics that Jane herself would have included in her masterpiece. I don't plan to use Jane's color placement, and I may not use Jane's block placement. My reasoning? It's MY quilt, not Jane's. I'm going to make it as "Dear Jane" author and artist Brenda Papadakis says, "In the style of Jane".

My method of sewing? Hannah is going to help me. Hannah is a gift from my loving husband, who knew I wanted her to come "live" with us.

Meet Hannah Elizabeth!

Hannah was born in the early 1900's.  She's a Singer W9, made sometime between 1906 and 1912.  Isn't she beautiful? Yes...I named my treadle sewing machine. No biggie...I named my much newer Janome machine too...her name is "Raquel" because I think she's beautiful and kind of sexy! :) Anyway....Hannah is all oiled up and ready to make this journey with me. I'm thrilled with the idea of using a machine to piece the quilt that is only about 16 years younger than Jane's quilt.

I've done my first block. Three times, as a matter of fact! This relatively simple block nearly kicked my butt! It's not been squared yet...I'll do that later....and the photo makes it look worse than it is...angle of the photo and all that. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!) Jane's block like this one was an orange or red with white. Since I'm using what I have, and I happened to have some Civil War charm squares, mine has more colors. I'm happy with it. As I said before, this is MY quilt, not Jane's....nor do I want it to be "Jane's" Beautiful? No...not really. I do think it will add interest in a very busy quilt tho. And I may change my mind and remake it. Who knows what path this venture of mine will take?