Dear Jane!

My last post included a snippet of photos taken at a friend's home in Colorado - a friend who is the creator of this intricate Dear Jane masterpiece I quilted last year.  

Dear Jane is a vintage pattern..."which is why many quilters have heard of the legendary Dear Jane Quilt. Jane A. Stickle, who was born on April 8, 1817 in Vermont, is the creator."  The original quilt is pictured below:

"Jane made the quilt during the Civil War, completing it in 1863. It is a sampler quilt, comprised of 169 square 5” blocks, each one different. There are also 4 pieced corner triangles, 52 pieced border triangles, and a unique scalloped border. One of the corner blocks is embroidered “In War Time, 1868".  Altogether, there are an astounding total of 5,602 pieces in this quilt!  The Jane Stickle Quilt is a well-known and much loved masterpiece. Perhaps the most astounding is that every block is made of a different fabric. Where did a farmer’s wife, living in rural Vermont during the Civil War, find so many different fabrics?"

The remaining photos are taken of the contemporary Dear Jane after quilting was completed, before trimming and the scalloped edge was bound.  In the photo, below, you can see where my client drew in the scallops to define the edge for the quilting process.  She requested a feather fill within these scallops, as well as in each corner.

A couple views of the backing turned toward the front.

Block detail:

"In 1996, Brenda Manges Papadakis published a book called Dear Jane: The Two Hundred Twenty-Five Patterns from the 1863 Jane A. Stickle Quilt. Thanks to Brenda and her informative book, quilters around the world have been able to recreate their own unique versions of the beloved Jane Stickle Quilt. This version, made in Colorado, includes 121 of Jane’s blocks."

I'd like to thank my client for her generous submission of Dear Jane Quilt history for this post, her encouragement in continuing my business through a studio/home total-loss fire and an out-of-state move all within 18 months, and her lovely creations - some of which she graciously allows me to quilt.  

It's customers like this - and like you - that reinforce the reasons why I quilt.