Hope you all had a happy Easter or Passover holiday. The weather was so nice here I was almost convinced spring was just around the corner. Today, however, I had to put on my winter coat when I went out. Oh well. Patience is a virtue, they say. Spring will get here when it gets here.
I am happy to have reached a milestone in my Dear Jane quilt. Yesterday I completed 100 blocks! I'm amazed and can hardly believe I have gotten this far and not given up. So I am definitely singing "Hooray" today. Maybe I WILL finish this quilt after all. No going back now.
One more to add to the growing pile
There's such a sense of satisfaction when a block is completed. Usually because it has taken me the better part of a day.
Many of you have asked me about my blocks. I know I am repeating myself here but I also know some of you struggle as well and hope you can glean a little encouragement to keep going on yours: I began making them in 2010. But, after getting a good running start that year, I had to take 6 months off. The following years also were full of months without any progress at all. So it has been an off and on project for me. I usually work in spurts, instead of focusing on this quilt alone, which allows me to do other things too.
I try to note my monthly progress on a database in my DJ Yahoo group and have committed to making at least one block a month. Some months are usually good for more blocks and there is still progress. I could certainly finish sooner if I made one row a month like some of you but that's not practical for me and wouldn't work. I know I could never keep it up.
One block per month doesn't sound like much but it almost always translates into more than one so I so try to keep it up and recommit every month. And every month I ask myself: Do I still want to finish this quilt? YES. Then I tell myself - go make a block to prove it, LOL. I have no timetable for finishing. When it gets done, it will be done. Hopefully, before I die. My goal is to not leave a box of unfinished blocks to my family as my legacy.
I use mostly 1800s reproduction fabrics. Sometimes I just use a print that I like a lot. Some of my blocks are hand pieced, some are machine pieced, some have shirtings for the background, some backgrounds are made with ecology cloth (higher quality muslin), and a few of my favorite fabrics have been repeated (oh no!). Some of my blocks I regret making and wish I had either used a different print or taken more time to do a better job. Oh well. I cannot afford the time to remake them now. They are what they are and they represent a part of my journey.
Every block is an achievement worthy of celebration.
Only 125 blocks and triangles left to go . . . Yikes, I'm not even halfway there. That sounds so discouraging when I read it. More than a few more years of work left, I guess.
And miles to go before I sleep . . .
. . . under a Dear Jane quilt, at least.