The construction of a handpieced Dear Jane block – a tutorial

This is my way of making my blocks.  Over the past 2 1/2 years since I started this blog people have expressed amazement at those of us making this quilt – especially those of us making it by hand and wonder how we do it.  I thought this morning as I was making a block to take photos along the way to share.

This block is H-1 Peek-a-Boo and it is for the “Insanity Revisited” Dear Jane quilt.  I start with a template of sorts.  I make two copies of each block one is on freezer paper and one is on regular paper.  On the regular paper I use it as a type of “paint by number” I guess you could call it.  I number all of the pieces and I put a W on the pieces that will be with the light color of fabric in this case it is buttercream but in the first Jane that I made it was white and I just stuck with the W because of that.  This photo on the left is that copy.  I actually copy one row of the blocks at a time leaving two blocks on each page.  I keep them in plastic sleeve protectors.  I decided to do this just in case I am insane enough to make a third – then this step will already be done!

The photo on the right are the pieces of the block already cut and pressed onto the correct fabric for each piece.  As I cut the pieces out I arrange them as they should be for the completed block.  I also break it down in to segments so I know how I will be sewing the block as shown in the next photo on the left. In this block you can see how I start to pin the sections in place as I finish them.  This starts to press the seam in place also.  The freezer paper gets peeled off as I finished each section – before I take the freezer paper off I mark where the seam will be with a chalk pencil.

The second photo on the right are all the segments ready to be put together.  It is easy to assemble when you do the block row by row, or section by section (I say this because these blocks can be kind of strange!).

This 3rd photo on the left is what happens if I need to take a break from the block.  In order to protect the pieces from “flying” away from the fan or whatever I place my large square ruler over the block which is on felt on top of my sandpaper board.  This also travels very well in this way.  There has been times when the ruler has covered it for as little as 5 minutes to 5 weeks!!  yes at times it takes forever to get back to it.

This 3rd photo on the right is taken from the back of the block – when the block is finished being pieced it is moved to the ironing pad and pressed making sure that all of the seams lay flat.

On the 4th photo on the left I have moved the block to the rotating cutting mat.  I find this very helpful in being able to turn the mat easily.  I forgot to mention that on my template you might have noticed that I have the outside edge highlighted in green?  That is because I make all of the outside edges a half inch larger than needed.  All other seams I cut at the quarter inch as normal.  I have found that by adding a half an inch around the outer edge pieces makes it so that I can have the correct size block with no worry.  Also I have used quarter inch masking tape to outline the edge of my ruler for easy seeing when marking my seams.  Now that the block has been pieced and pressed I trim it to the correct size – this is a 5 inch block when it is put together it finishes at 4 1/2 inches.

In this 4th photo on the right is the block trimmed to the correct size with a one inch piece of sashing ready to be put in place.  As I finished each block I add the sashing gradually getting each row done block by block.  I find it easier for me to do it this way.  I can see the progress being made.  A lot of people wait until all of the blocks are finished before joining them.  To me that would be tedious to wait until the end to join them all — but that is me, we all have our own way of doing this quilt – there is no “correct” way as we all have our “own” way.

In this 5th photo on the left is the block completed with the sashing.  It gets pressed after the sashing is added – I take a photo for the blog before the sashing is added normally.  When I am done with it, it is put in a ziplock bag and stored flat waiting for the next block to be added to it.

In the Dear Jane book it suggests that you keep a journal of your progress.  Some people do this, some do not.  I like to just for my own purposes – I use it more for keeping track of how many blocks, how many pieces and how much time spent on the quilt – this is to satisfy my own curiosity as to how long did this take to make!!  I also jot down notes if we are traveling where we are when I am working on it.  If it has been a long time between blocks I might mention what other projects I have been working on.  I also add family news – on my first Dear Jane one of my brothers had cancer and I mention him from time to time as he was sick and then when he died.  Family birthdays and visits from out of town siblings.  I mention my grandchildren in it also and I occasionally tape a photo in the book.  Here on the right is a picture of my journal from this morning adding in a photo of the 7th row complete.

My first Dear Jane quilt called “Insanity” has been claimed by my oldest daughter who has a very intense interest in the quilt – you could call her a “Dear Jane Groupie” she doesn’t quilt she just wants them given to her on a regular basis   the journal for that quilt will go with it – she might find it very boring but she will have a record of my boring life during the almost 4 years it took to make it from start to finish.  It will be 4 years in February since I started that quilt but I will finish it before then.