Amy’s Creative Side is having another Quilt Festival she is asking people to enter a quilt and she has all kinds of sponsors giving away prizes.
The quilt that really took a lot of work in it for me and that I am proud of accomplishing is my first Dear Jane quilt. Some of you know all about my Dear Jane that I named “Insanity” as I felt I must have been insane to start that quilt. Throughout my blog I have talked about it numerous times. (click on photos to enlarge)
My completed Dear Jane "Insanity"
I started this quilt on my daughter Melanie’s birthday February 23, 2005 so it is only fitting that this quilt is going to her. I hand pieced the whole quilt and hand quilted it. I finished quilting it November 13, 2009 It took me 4 years and 9 months to complete it. Of course I took quite a few breaks and made other quilts during this time. I had to take breaks or I would have truly gone insane! LOL Anyone who is making this quilt knows what I mean.
This quilt has 4,928 pieces in it. It is a charm quilt in that each block uses a different fabric. It took me 645 hours and 30 minutes to make it. Yes I kept a journal as many of us Janiacs do.
My daughter and I with THE QUILT
It resided on my bed for about 5 months and now at the end of this month after finally putting a label and a hanging sleeve on it I will be giving it to my daughter at the end of the month when I see her. She will be hanging it on a wall so her dog will not do any damage to it.
One of the main things I learned about quilting and through this quilt is that Kona Cotton does not work really well with hand piecing small pieces. I never plan to use it again for a quilt like this although I dearly love that fabric — just not with a quilt like this – it has a little stretch to it and also had a problem with raveling edges.
When I finished this quilt I had no intention on ever making another like it but after only 3 weeks I went into withdrawal from my addiction to Dear Jane and started a second one! I am calling this one “Insanity Revisited” as I really and truly must be insane to start a second one. This one is in red and butter cream batiks. It will go to my other daughter one day. I have been hand piecing it also and I am almost done with all the squares and will soon be moving on to the triangle border.
The second quilt looks like this so far:
Sometime down the road if Amy has another festival and I am finished with the top I will feature this one. 11 of the 13 needed rows of blocks is done.
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