I just don’t think I can follow your rules. I know you worked hard on all those 4 1/2″ blocks and I tried to follow the book, really I did. But it just isn’t going to happen. Love and admiration, Katy

A number of years ago, my local guild makde a Dear Jane raffle quilt. There were a lot of leftover photocopies of pages and someone gave them to me.  I was quite fascinated and  decided to make some of the blocks. I got kind of hooked on it and yet I had other blocks that I liked that were not in the book. I made them anyway. I invented more blocks with things that are important to me: a school house, my family members’ initials, scissors, a cross etc. I made 100 blocks and put them together into this:

This picture is washed out but most of the prints are repros or things that just look old to me. You can’t tell but the border is quilted with feathers. I won a ribbon at a local show with this for Best Traditional. I love this quilt and had a lot of fun making it my way and my own.

Fast forward a few years and I am again thinking I should do the Dear Jane thing. I bought the book. I made patterns. I made some blocks. This past week I discovered the 25 or so I had done and decided to make more. Some of these are really fussy to make. I thought about simplifying a few blocks but the very thought made me feel like a criminal or at least a serious slacker….

I remembered this quilt I finished earlier and got it out of the closet. I am going to put a sleeve on it and hang it in my front room.  I remembered how much I loved this and how fun it was to make without being married to the pattern.

Once again, I decided to ditch Jane. I will still make plenty of blocks from the book but I will change them with wild abandon. I will add and subtract to my hearts content. The world doesn’t need one more Jane Stickle wanna be quilt from me.

I think I will call this, Sister Kate, She Hath Done What She Could…..