Spring Break with Dear Jane

 Dear Jane Reality Check

My original plan for Dear Jane was keeping each color in their own bag which resulted in much hemming and hawing over which block to work on depending on whether I would sew by machine or hand.  For a long time Jane only came out when we had no electricity during hurricanes, road trips for swim meets, or longer break from work and I had more time on my hands.  Progress was extremely slow.

early January 2022

Over the Christmas break my strategy for Dear Jane changed drastically.   I hung a flannel backed tablecloth on the biggest wall in the guest room/office.  Then I emptied all the bags and placed the completed blocks in their correct position.  It fits rows A-J, which is good enough for now.   Wow!  I had a lot more finished that I had thought - and that inspired me!

Melons - my nemesis

The next change was to stop agonizing over which block to make.  How often had I paged through the book and thought and thought and not made a thing?  I had already made copies of each block so that I could use them as a base for paper piecing or cut up the individual pieces without destroying my book.  I removed all the copies of blocks that were complete and put the remaining copies in order. 

The biggest decision has been the most effective.  Whatever block is next in the stack of copies is made next regardless of level of difficulty.  This has been liberating!  

After making so much progress over the Christmas break I added Dear Jane to my monthly goals.  Well, once school started back up that just didn't work.  They turned out to be too complicated to do when I get home from work.  I feel that I need to give it more attention than I have on a work day.  So nothing got done until Spring Break.  But it was good to figure out that that is how it is going to be.

Not symmetrical, but good enough for now! 

So instead of working on an easier project during Spring Break, I focused on Jane.  I am over halfway and the end is in sight.  I even completed the dreaded G6 - the star in a star!

mid-March 2022 

We have a 4 day weekend for Easter and I am hoping to make some progress on Jane during that time.