Sew Fun 2 Quilt: Dear Jane, I WILL finish you!

Most of you have probably heard of the famous Jane A. Stickle quilt completed in 1863. It is my understanding that it resides at The Bennington Museum in Vermont and they bring the quilt out for display just once a year. Brenda Papadakis became fascinated with the quilt after seeing it in Richard Cleveland's book Plain and Fancy. She was able to travel to the museum and trace the blocks which she shares in her book "Dear Jane: The Two Hundred Twenty-Five Patterns from the 1863 Jane A. Stickle Quilt".

Jane famously signed her quilt, which apparently was unusual at the the time, and her inscription in the lower right corner triangle reads: "In War Time 1863, Pieces 5602, Jane A. Stickle". The quilt contains 169 square blocks that finish at
4 1/2 inches and 52 triangular blocks. Each of these blocks is a little work of art.

Since Brenda's book came out in 1996, there have been many, many reproductions of Jane's quilt. To quote Richard Cleveland, "As long as Jane Stickle's quilt endures, it will challenge and inspire quilt makers of succeeding generations."

I started making my own "Dear Jane" quilt, oh... a long time ago. Then I got side-tracked with other projects and put it away for awhile. My goal this year, 2014, was to work on it every month and try to get it done, but I got side-tracked again....

Now however I have some new motivation! My sister-in-law's miniature quilt group in Logan, Utah, the Sew Small Miniature Quilt Guild, has begun a Dear Jane challenge and Cathie invited me to participate as an honorary member!
(Hunter's Moon block)

I quickly accepted the challenge! I needed something to get me motivated to work on my Dear Jane quilt again and this is just the ticket. Each month Cathie will email me the list of blocks the guild has chosen to work on or focus for that month and we're to complete at least three of them.
The list for October is:
A-3 Hunter's Moon
A-7 Dad's Plaid
B-1 Bachelor Buttons
B-12 Starflower
C-9 Jane's Tears
E-1 Aunt Exie's Phlox
E-10 Five & Dime
F-13 Tour de France
K-7 Rose of Sharing

(Dad's Plaid)

I was surprised and excited to discover that I had already completed all but one of them! I have been making the blocks in order and I am now up to G-8. So, the requirement is that we make three blocks, at least, each month. This month I made K-7, the one on the list that I hadn't made, and G-7 and G-8, which were "next in line" for me. To date I have completed 86 square blocks and 20 triangles. So I am a little over half way done with the square blocks and a little less than half way done with the triangular blocks. Time to finish! I am SO excited about this challenge - thank you Cathie and Sew Small quilters for letting me participate :)

(Bachelor Buttons)