Dear Jane Update -- 10 Years Later

I've been working on my version of the Dear Jane quilt for approximately ten years now. I think I did my first block sometime in 2004 at a class at NYC's City Quilter. (In the book, I've written down the date that I completed many of the blocks--but not always the year. The earliest complete date I see as I flip through the book today is January 30, 2004). I have between 60 and 70 of the center blocks left to complete, and I've started laying out my blocks using the "My Block Chart" of the EQ software created for the quilt.

My original plan was not much of a plan. I wanted to do a red and black quilt. Slowly, "red" came to mean "orange/pink/maroon/red" and "black" came to mean "black/grey/white." I didn't plan to do a trip around the world, like Jane did, but now that's the design I'm aiming for now. I am not redoing any blocks, though, so my trip around the world will be a little less clear than others'.

Recently, a friend who started a purple Dear Jane and joined a monthly "support group" told me about a blog with tutorials for each block: http://thatquilt.blogspot.com/

I've been checking that website for tips, as well as the worksheets provided by Judy and Diane (who teach the Dear Jane class at The City Quilter), the tips at the Dear Jane website, and other tidbits I've picked up doing Google searches. I recently found a flying geese tutorial that I really like--it's the second one in this Connecting Threads blog post.

Today, I'm going to finish out the row G patterns (not Row G in my chart, above, but Row G in the Dear Jane book). G2, which Brenda titled "Mohawk Trail" is quite ugly, in my opinion. So, I'm going to do a 4.5" variation of the "Swirly Twirly Dresden" block by Rachel of the Quilting Lodge instead.