Dear Jane Update

After all the work on the "River" piece, I needed a break from the intense quilting, so I worked on my "Dear Jane" blocks. Just straight sewing on the sewing machine, with bits of hand applique. The blocks are all made from vintage fabric that I have collected from garage sales, and antique shops. I managed to do at least two a day for a week, and only have 8 more to do. Of course they are the most difficult ones, that I skipped before, and now have to make myself do them. I am having trouble finding enough large pieces of fabric, most of what I have is small scraps, and I have used a lot of it already. I am trying not to duplicate the fabrics, but I did on several of the blocks. There are a total of 169 blocks, so I've done about 160, 5" blocks. The next question is, do I want to make the 52 pieced and applique triangles for the border? After looking at the patterns, most of them can be done in paper piecing techniques, as they are odd shapes to fit in a long triangle. The paper piecing would make them quicker and easier, but still a lot of work.

I would love to be able to say, "I have done them all" but it's a lot more work, and I'm not sure I have enough larger scraps to make them. Re-reading the "Dear Jane" book, I noticed she finished her quilt in 1863, so 2013 would be the 150th anniversary, it would be neat to finish mine this year. I would have to do 2 triangles a week for the next 6 months, or 4 a week for the next 3 months. Am I Crazy??? I do have other things to do. I always knew this would be a long term project, a few blocks at a time, now is not the time to get fanatical about it, just because of the date. I have one Oregon friend who has all the blocks and about half the triangles done, and my California friend is getting close to 100 blocks done. maybe I should talk to them about inspiration.