Finishing a long-time project, sort of

Tonight I finished my Civil War Dear Jane quilt top. I love the way it turned out, and have to thank Denise Eisenhardt of the Dear Jane list for her idea, which I stole (with her permission!).

The top was pieced and appliqued in 60 days, back in 2001. It's been expanded from the "standard" Dear Jane quilt design to fit a queen size bed. I set it aside for a while, not sure about how I wanted to quilt it. By the time I was ready to quilt it, though, we'd replaced our queen size bed with king size, so the quilt won't fit our bed. Smart thing that I am...I set it aside for a while.

When I saw Denise's Facebook profile picture, I was delighted to see she was holding the solution to my problem: her Dear Jane quilt has wide print borders, with the scallops of the Dear Jane quilt appliqued onto the border. So when it's on the bed, it looks like the Dear Jane quilt is laying on top of a larger one. Problem solved! I had the perfect fabric, and set to work.

Now it's done...well, it's ready for quilting. I need to find some backing fabric for it, but I'm pleased to have gotten it one step further down the road to "finished." Enjoy!