Dear Jane Progress!

Earlier this year I wrote in this space that I wanted to try to commit to making a lot of Dear Jane progress this year (there's a lot of qualifying language there, I know, and that's on purpose). I'm happy to report that, so far, I've been making progress! Above are the four blocks I completed between the beginning of the year and 2/5/11.

First was block G1. Piecing the curves was trickier on this one than any of the other curved blocks I hand-pieced, and I'm not sure why. I clipped the seam allowances quite a bit, though, and that seemed to make the difference.

Next was block G7, which I was a bit hesitant to start: It's the center block! These curves came together a bit easier than the previous block.

Then I pieced G8, which was also a little tricky with all those inset seams, but much easier to deal with by hand-piecing than by machine!

Last was block A1. Up to this point, I'd been skipping around in rows A-G, piecing the blocks I thought would be simpler first. However, I've skipped most of the appliqué, and know that if I don't go in some kind of order, I'll be left with all the tricky ones at the end. I've nearly exhausted the blocks I had prepped in previous years (it seemed to be easiest to cut for a handful at a time), and I've since learned the back-basting appliqué technique, so from this point forward I am going to work in order, starting with row A. This block has 32 pieces, the most up to that point!

Here are my totals, as of 2/5/11: 20 blocks completed, 290 pieces total. There are more in the works, though, so stay tuned! If I can complete my goal of 50 blocks this year, that means that by early 2014 I can have the center of the quilt finished! Then it will be on to the triangles... This is a marathon, people, and I'm so happy to be doing it.