Jane Taught Me How to Applique

I started my Dear Jane quilt way back in 2004 (you can read about Dear Jane here, but in summary, Jane Stickle's quilt is a beautiful Civil War quilt with 169 different small blocks that started a craze in the quilting world). Almost every month since then I have attended a Friday night class at the City Quilter where I could work on it; many months, it was the only time I got to work on it. Because I have so very, very many projects and so very, very little free time (and because I get bored easily) I decided I would only make a wall quilt, using only the applique squares from the original quilt. This had the added benefit of forcing me to learn how to applique, something I had been avoiding for a long time (eventually I threw in a few curved-pieced squares, to learn that too). Working on the quilt, particularly in a group setting, has been a wonderful experience, and I am not sure I would have survived the last five years without the class.

Last week, I finally finished the quilt!
Yay me! As you can see, I picked lots of bright fabrics (different ones for each square) on a black background, a combination I chose after seeing a gorgeous Dear Jane quilt (full size, natch) in brilliant batiks. I also echoed the Trip Around the World setting Stickle used for the blocks, though it is hard to tell because I rather stupidly photographed it on its side (rotating the image was not an option because the perspective is slightly off, since I had to lay the quilt on the floor to photograph it and unfortunately I did not have a harness suspended from the ceiling to make sure I got the photo perfectly flat and centered). Tilt your head to the right, and you can see how there are bands of color; for example, the purple blocks go from the upper left to the right middle to the bottom center-left.

What's even more exciting is at the request of the folks at City Quilter I am exhibiting the quilt at the City Quilter quilt exhibit, "Made in New York," to be held at the Williams Club. My first show! Granted, my particular quilt was not really juried, but that is just as well because despite my pride in my quilt it has some significant flaws. The quilt will be on exhibit from September 20 through November 16.