It's All About the Journey...

I admire quilters that can piece and quilt quickly.  It's a state of quilt Nirvana I have yet to reach.  My sewing machine rarely makes it past medium speed.  And since I also have to  quilt on a domestic machine (if I'm doing it myself), that also takes more time than I would like to admit. 

Some quilters I know are just so...talented.  It all seems to go so quickly and effortlessly for them.  Others just have more time than I do. 

And others need very little sleep. 

I am not one of an of those quilters.  I need sleep.  I don't have a lot of time to spend at the machine -- at least not as much as I want to have.  That coupled with the fact that 99 percent of  what I makes generally has some kind of handwork involved...I just not as fast as I want to be.

Couple that with the fact that I tend to gravitate towards large projects....

But sometimes there are tiny, nuggets of jewels that find their way into those large projects...

And this brings me to Dear Jane.

I began my journey with Jane a several years ago.  This is a major effort for any quilter.  It's well over 100 tiny, 4.5 by 4.5 squares that are intricate.  Most of them are paper pieced.  Quite a few are traditionally pieced.  Some are appliqued. 

A few of these blocks are a pain in the neck.  You can generally tell which ones are going to be this type.  Last week, I honestly thought the block was going to drive me up a wall, not because it was complicated, but because there were so many steps.  You cut blocks out, cut them on the diagonal.  Sewed them back together.  Cut them out again and applique them into a circle. 

I'm talking about block L-13.  I am so close to getting the center square finished that I'm champing at the bit to complete it and anything right now that even looks like it's going to slow me down tends to set my teeth on edge.  And I was so afraid that this block would be "one of those blocks."

However, like a lot of things I've done in quilting,  I was pleasantly surprised.  It went together quickly.  It appliqued easily...and I love the way it looks.

Now I am on the last row of Jane.  Thankfully, most of these blocks are paper pieced.  One will have to be mirrored.  Two are definitely challenges.  Then I will move on to those wonderful "kites" that border this quilt.  When I'm through, I will have three years of my life invested in this sucker.

Have I learned a lot?

Heck, yes!  How to paper piece better, set in tiny pieces without breaking out in hives, and the graceful art of realizing that finished is better than perfect (most of time time). 

Would I do it again?

Yes.  And I plan to that very thing.  Most quilters that do one Jane generally will do another one.  It truly is all about the journey with this quilt and not the destination.  My next Jane will be done in Batiks and I will only do the blocks I love.  I will enlarge them to at least 8 inches (finished) and will not do the kites on the border, but design one of my own.

Every quilt I make teaches me something....flexibility, a new technique, how to push myself out of my comfort zone, how to muster the determination to finish a complex issue.  Quilting is all about the journey of getting to the finish line.  Don't get me wrong, I love to finish projects and need to finish more of them.  But in the rush to get things done, I would be horribly ignorant if I missed the lessons the journey is trying to teach me.

Enjoy the journey....while your eyes are on the finish line.

Love and Stitches...
Sherri