Shipshewana - Dear Jane Retreat

Well, I made it to the DJ retreat...but I might have been the last person to arrive...

We are not in Kansas anymore... (we're in Indiana)

The drive between the western 'burbs of Chicago and Indiana is a pretty one -
once you get past Gary.

Beautiful sunset tonight.

Lolly's treated our group to a catered dinner, then we hit the shops.
I picked up some notions and a Jennifer Chiaverini novel.

This is the "sewing room" at the conference center. It's a huge
room set up for 100 people. Two quilters split an 8' table.
Shared cutting and ironing stations... and a ginormous snack table.

We had a nice presentation by a quilt historian on women/quilts of the civil war.

This basket quilt was awesome. It was in such great shape it was kind of strange.
It was like someone had just made it yesterday and washed it once in warm water.

closeup of basket quilt.

More antique civil-war era eye candy.

Prepifestivus!

Piles and Piles of Pattern Piece Pages

So... I was at my Dear Jane bee yesterday and what do I find sitting on the table tucked behind the lemonade, leaning against the wall all unobtrusivelike? A humble paper bag stuffed with a big old pile of paper, the word "Free" scrawled across it in black magic sharpie. I hesitantly peek inside and lo and behold?? Can we all join hands, rock back and forth and say... JACKPOT?? piles and packets and parcels of pre-printed Dear Jane pattern piece pages... ppppppppppppppp As if that wasn't great enough, many of them were printed on what appears to be Carol Doak foundation paper. : ) yeee haw! I double checked with the hostess and sure enough, she said they were cast-offs from a previous incarnation of a Dear Janer group and we were free to take and use. Once I culled through it, it turned out there were about 100 patterns - just about half of the 225 needed for this project... about $10 worth of specialty paper, about $10 in ink (I swear, that friggin ink!) and of course HOURS of labor. Boy, was I happy. It was like Christmas for a quilter! : )

the loot!

the pile included three complete sides of triangles for a total of 39 block patterns...
here I am referencing my triangle directory (sorted by side)

I highlighted the triangles I got printed patterns for in this windfall...
Since I had already printed some of the top row, it looks like
I just have about 5 or 6 to print and I'm done with triangles.

This is my view inserting each pattern into a page protector
(see the new, giant box of 200 back there?) After a year of working
on this quilt I am almost done with prep. Oh, ok - I still have to cut out
all of these friggin patterns... : )

...and the final prep stage - the cut pattern pieces ready to go...

Storage and Binderization:

It started with one binder. I was all cocky with my fancy one-touch binder and my page protectors and my tabbed divider pages and binder geek accessories. (binder geek right here). I heard people in.the.know saying you need 2 or 3 binders for this gig. Sure enough, now I'm up to three and contemplating a fourth. I have a generic, general one. And then I have two enclosed/zipper binders - one for triangles/corners and one for the regular blocks. Since the one for regular blocks is basically maxed out with just the pattern pieces, and only about 25 blocks, I am going to have to make another move. The other thing I wanted to do was have a work/portable case. One of the binders would be great for that since they zip up. The work case would have a couple blocks' worth of patterns & fabric, a small cutting board, sandpaper board, and misc. supplies. So yeah, I guess I probably need to buy TWO more binders for a total of 5. This is an undertaking, man, I tell you. But I'm loving every minute of it. The other thing I need to get on top of is keeping track of fabrics used. I have been setting them aside and cutting some swatches, but I have already goofed this up a few times and I need a system.

023.Claudia Jean's Cojones - aka I-12, Fred's Square Fair

My version - another blue diamond - about half done.

This is one of those where the templates don't really match the block in the book. In this case, there's a white border around the block in the original quilt, but in the pattern, they've taken that out. Since I'm changing the color/value in a lot of the blocks, rearranging all the blocks and using alternative blocks, it's not like you could call me a purist, but I decided to add back an outer border to this - just like the look of the original.

This time around, I named the block for CJ Cregg, another of my personal, albeit fictional, heros.Hmm, maybe I should save this name for a block that has fewer right angles. You know what I'm talking about? Nudge me if you do. I can't be the only quilter who uses the word cojones in a sentence.

The layout of this block, btw, kept my head smoking for hours last night - I just could NOT figure out which way the freaking pieces should go. Ironically, the highest score I ever got on an aptitude test was in the category of "spatial relationships" - I'm starting to wonder if I read that right.
 

Jane's Original

Prep-a-Rama

Dear Jane Bee today... tried to get some prep work done ahead of time so I can just crank while I'm there... It was more of a challenge than I anticipated. I am not just in a muddle, I am a muddle. Ringing affirmative: I am Muddle. Hear me roar.




Also worked on prep for Edyta Sitar's "Sweet Sixteen." I had traced the appliqué patterns onto freezer paper a week or two ago and cut them all out yesterday. Between the tracing (with some duplicates) and the cutting out, it was a 3-4 hour project. Still need to enlarge the layout grid to 150% before I can do anything else. I must say that's a little annoying. I think a pattern should come with what you need - ready to go. But I'm new to appliqué so maybe this is standard. Anyway, felt good to get this done...  I don't really mind cutting small pieces out of things. Especially while watching EAT PRAY LOVE. <3 Smile also with your liver. <3 This photo doesn't do anything for this gorgeous stack of Edyta Sitar's gorgeous fabric. Did I mention it was gorgeous. The kit I bought, oddly, comes with different colors that what is listed on the back of the pattern (e.g., calls for 7 reds, but there are only 4, etc.) - so I'm not sure how you're supposed to interpret that. But I am just going to follow the colors as closely to the pattern example as possible since that looks so beautiful, and if that means I am F O R C E D to find some additional fabric well then, that's a sacrifice I'm prepared to make. I am trying in vain to find the blue border used here. I figured out it's from Edyta Sitar's Bon Voyage line but haven't gotten any closer than that. I decided it's the punch of that dark teal against the beige, punctuated with those deep pinks that really sings to me so I gotta find that somewhere.

Over and out til next time...

Diamonds in Blue

You might remember that in my 'Jane's Addicted' quilt I'm making a large diamond out of diamonds and they are all going to be in medium blues. I had re-sorted my blues and narrowed down the choices for the diamonds, pre-cut a bunch of templates, and got back to sewing. Securely ensconced in my organized high, I was feeling great about finishing good ole' shutterbug. Look how many many (many) pieces it has. Didn't it turn out nicely...? well - 

a diamond in blue. great!

nope. it's concentric squares in blue.
totally forgot to reverse the background and blue on this one.

ugh! to try to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again... I got out the roadmap...
Hey, no one is forcing me to make this design process so challenging, but if
I'm going to do it like I envisioned, I guess it's time to quit winging it and get my house in order.

Now, I'll bet you were guessing I couldn't possibly put up another post featuring a spreadsheet. well... you guessed wrong!  I ramped up the spreadsheet, pulling in all block names from the alphabetical listing on the dear jane site and started filling in the wave/motif info. for each block, starting with diamonds. Now I'll be able to sort by anything and use this as a planning tool and not just a recording-as-i-go tool. No more wire hangers!

Jane's Addicted to Process.

...of course i had to redesign it.

 
Once I decided I wanted to make this quilt, I wondered if there was a way to keep the overall look and feel of the quilt - to faithfully reproduce (most of) the blocks, but tweak the block placement to emphasize the "trip around the world" pattern at the heart of the design...

So here's a picture of the original Jane A. Stickle quilt. Isn't it beautiful?
I traced over the concentric diamonds that create the "trip around the world" pattern.
Since there is a wide range of values in the blocks, especially since many of the fabrics have faded,
the color scheme of the "trip" effect is a bit hard to see at first.

An easy way to check the "value" of something is to neutralize the color...
I converted all the blocks in the dear jane software to one single color
so I could see the light/dark (value) more clearly. Squinting helps, too.
With the color gone, the motifs start talking to you.

Hello, circles and diamonds, light and dark...

solids and 9-patches, and X'es light and dark...

central motif (applique), asymmetrical, stars, etc.

My worksheet:  testing out a new layout using repositionable colorless blocks... (I printed out and cut up the blocks and hit the backs with a scrapbooking adhesive and it worked great... a little the worse for wear now...) Once I had a good sense for the motif groupings and values of the blocks, I started playing with a new layout based on motif and value. e.g., there are approximately x# of diamond blocks - where could I place those that would make the most sense?

Lightbulb. the blocks with a diamond motif could
form a giant diamond and the X blocks could form a giant X.
At this point I was starting to think all my geeking out on this was starting to pay off.

close up...

A clean version of a redesign... This shows the general block placement I'm going with, but not color scheme (for example, all the diamonds will be in blue.) Since I love the overall color balance of the original quilt and want to try to keep that feeling, I am using a lot of tans and browns, pinks, blues and greens... Some other plans... I'm "righting" the basket, (I actually think it's adorable on-end, but it keeps making me want to turn my head sideways...) I'm boldly replacing the blocks I think are ugly... (blasphemy), and trying to keep the block design as close to the original as possible without reproducing "mistakes" (blasphemy). There's an elements/symbol thing running down the center column: there's  rain, snow, star, earth, sun, and moons. I am using shirtings for  background which could potentially ruin any increased balance I'm achieving with rearranging the blocks... So we will just have to wait and see how it all turns out!

Tracking Spreadsheets...

Block # of Pieces Tally - I adapted this from someone else's spreadsheet.
It allows you to enter the number of pieces you used for each 4.5" block, triangle and corner kite
and then automatically tallies them, subtotals and totals them. Handy!

Jane's Addicted block tally spreadsheet. This one is a comprehensive tracking tool of each block and every possible detail I could think that might be worth tracking. The spreadsheet tracks blocks started in order by number, name, wave (trip around the world), name of wave, general color grouping, date started, date completed, time to complete, original position, Jane's Addicted position (where the block will be positioned in *my* quilt), foreground fabric #, line, designer and manufacturer, and background fabric #, line, designer and manufacturer, number of pieces, assembly method, and type of block (4.5", triangle, or corner kite).  Next up I will be adding a column for Jane's Addicted block name as I couldn't help but start giving all the blocks my own name. heheh.

T03.Checkerboard

 

Block name: Checkerboard
Jane's Addicted block name: Muddy Bubbles
Original position: TR3
Jane's Addiction position: tbd
Fabric/foreground: Judie Rothermel
Fabric/background: Jo Morton
Color Group: brown
Wave: triangles

Date started: 10/27/11
Date finished: 10/28/11
Time: 5?
Pieces: 31
Method: paper piecing
Notes: did 1/4" s/a on the main seams, 1/8" on little, interior seams. Redrew the section where the checkerboard doesn't line up. Ripped out at least 10 seams...

4.5" blocks: 7
Triangles: 3
Kites: 0
Total blocks: 10
Total number of pieces: 235

wow, this thing has a lot of rows

just keeps going...

oopsies

and going...

beautiful couple of days

Misc tidbits

I'm down a computer and down a phone/camera, sooo I'm feeling a bit out of the loop. But just so's I don't lose track of things, here are a few notes on my progress.

- 9/10: cut pieces for Starstruck.

- 9/11: cut pieces for Brandon's Star

- did some thinking on background fabrics (to do all the same or vary? Solid creams vs. Shirtings, etc.)

---> http://tolberts.org/lori/dear-jane/background-fabric-selection-my-thoughts/

- reviewed latest hancock's of Paducah catalog. Always a pleasure. I did not purchase anything.

- Judie Rothermel is still the reigning goddess, imho.

- put together the new desktop ott lite I bought months (?) ago.

- purchased dear Jane rulers at the last DJ club, a glue pen and a fq of course...

- rejoined the dj list serve but already regretting it as all I've encountered so far has been a political argument surfacing over the 'enduring freedom' quilt (idetestgeorgebush) : / , a bunch of fairly offensive spam, and flashbacks from my bad experience with that group a few years back.

- been searching far and wide for sites/blogs detailing current dj projects. Love to see what other people are doing. Love the creative process.

- otherwise, spent time today organizing paperwork, and watching 9/11 coverage and a great docu on the kennedys featuring gobs of home movies.

The Jane A. Stickle Quilt

So yeah, what's really fueling this whole thang is I'm finally starting on "the quilt." I'm talking about the famous "Jane A. Stickle" quilt aka the "Dear Jane" quilt. It was made by one woman during the civil war and simply, poignantly signed “In War Time 1863. Pieces 5602. Jane A. Stickle.”






The quilt is known for its originality and many, many tiny pieces. Bajillions of people all over the world make reproductions of this quilt so there's a lot of great info and camaraderie out there. It's a community tradition to give your quilt a name. Surprise: mine is called "Jane's Addiction."

The original Jane A. Stickle quilt

225 unique, pieced blocks - no repeats.

• 169 pieced 4.5" square blocks
• 52 pieced triangle and
• 4 pieced corner kites

The intention to make a recreation of this quilt has been there for years. In fact, a few blocks have even been made - mainly because I absolutely couldn't help but to make them. The jane-driven compulsive fabric-hoarding peaked a few years ago already, declined and eventually leveled off. In the meantime, a huge stash of civil war reproduction quilting fabric was accumulated. Binned for longer than I'd like to admit, it's been freshly reorganized by color. ::little old lady adam sandler voice:: "Oh, I love touching my fabwic!" Well, that was embarassing - but honestly, that's how I get.

And of course, I had to redesign the whole layout of the quilt. I love the individual block designs and the overall color of the original, but being all graphic designery and edity all the time I decided what it really needed was to be reorganized by block style, value and color. Three years later... (just kidding). As I am student of 'creative process' I will share photos of that progression at some point. There's a book. There's software. There are 100s of patterns to be printed. There are 1000s of pages of tips and advice to reference. And I haven't even mentioned yet how lucky I feel that my favorite quilt shop finally started a 'Dear Jane' group for those of us who've been wanting to take on this project. Suffice it to say a lot of work has gone into this and I haven't really even started, ya know? But I love this quilt so much and am dying to get up to my neck in it proper. Since this is such a large project I wanted to document it. A lot of people seem to do that and I am getting on board. Block by block I want to take notes and keep track of details (how many pieces, how much time it took, fabric used and method) and other ephemera.

As for scope, I'm not yet sure if I will limit my posts to "Jane's Addiction" but I'd like to think general musings on the pursuit of happiness would be welcomed here as well.

- JanesAddicted.