Opening The World Of "Dear Jane"

A review of Dear Jane Software from The Electric Quilt Company

Click the picture to visit the Dear Jane Software Web site

Electric Quilt's Dear Jane software is based on the sampler quilt made during the Civil War in 1863 by Jane A. Stickle. Brenda Papadakis made this quilt famous in her book, Dear Jane.

Read my review of Brenda's Dear Jane

EQ's Dear Jane software serves many purposes. It connects you to a large and growing community of Dear Jane quilters through Web links. It helps you track your progress through construction while you record notes about your techniques, challenges, and life events. And by making the block size flexible, Dear Jane software helps bring this wartime challenge to quilters of all skill levels.

The Dear Jane software package contains two major sections. I call the first section the "community" section. This section connects you to others making their Dear Jane journey and helps you track your progress. It contains the story of Jane's quilt and Brenda's discovery and documentation of it.

The second section is the quilt construction section for making Dear Jane quilts. It is a great tool for taking you into the lifestyle of making a Dear Jane quilt. I call it a lifestyle because piecing and appliqueing these blocks draws you in and keeps you captivated.

Dear Jane Community

Electric Quilt devotes an entire section to the community of Dear Jane quilters. It includes Brenda's experience bringing this quilt to the attention of quilt-lovers everywhere.

In both text on the screen and in mini movies, Brenda explains how she intended this idea to be used as a springboard for your own version of a sampler quilt. Each of the newly inspired quilts that comes from Jane's original sampler design is called a Baby Jane.

I hadn't realized Brenda's intention was to inspire new quilts made from the original block designs. She makes that very clear in the interview.

In addition, you will find text describing Jane Stickle, her quilt and blocks, and the Bennington museum in which the quilt resides. There is also a gallery of Baby Jane quilts.

You can also share your accomplishments, questions, and tips with members of a Dear Jane mailing list. The mailing list is a nice place to make new Dear Jane friends. Since I don't get out much during the winter, I can use it to keep in touch with others who help me stay focused on my Baby Jane project.

There is a huge Dear Jane world out there, and EQ's Dear Jane software welcomes you to it.

Tracking Progress

The "My Jane Journey" section helps you track your progress on the blocks and create journal pages to record thoughts and events in your life and in the world.

You can use the tracking chart as a simple checklist, or you can put in scanned images of your blocks. Putting in images of your blocks allows you to see how your quilt is looking without having to spread the completed blocks all over the floor.

Or, like me, you can do both. I keep a tracking chart in with my blocks so I know what I have completed. And I scan in my completed blocks to see how the colors and fabrics are working according to my plan.

The journal is one of my favorite features. It is hard to find a quilter's journal set up for each project. This journal is free-form, allowing you to decide what to include, from text to pictures.

Each journal page can be printed separately to include in a notebook. Each page prints with a nice border of blocks from the Dear Jane quilt.

Another incentive to use the Dear Jane software is the Certificates of Completion section. You can track milestones of completion of blocks along the way. Since making the entire quilt is such a large undertaking, it is possible to put the project aside. But the awards help you strive for several levels of completion.

My Quilt Design

The "My Quilt Design" section provides the tools to make a Baby Jane quilt in your own way. Electric Quilt added several new features to this software package that EQ5 doesn't have.

New features include a project wizard to help you get started making a unique quilt. This feature gets you off to a good start by asking questions about the quilt you want to make.

But the easiest way to begin is to start with one of the sample quilt. You don't have to answer all the questions that the wizard asks. You don't have to select all the blocks. And you don't have to select all the fabrics.

The block libraries include Jane's original 169 center blocks, 52 triangle border blocks, and four kite-shaped corner blocks. It also includes 192 center block variations and 125 alternate blocks.

The center block variations provide at least one other way to make each block. Looking at the variation blocks, I could see the changes were designed to make the blocks easier to construct.

The alternate blocks are traditional blocks not used in the original Dear Jane quilt, but they make nice patterns when alternated with the original Dear Jane blocks. These blocks help produce a secondary pattern to liven up the design.

Or you can use a plain block to give adjacent blocks more breathing room and attention. I chose a secondary star pattern that really emphasizes the Dear Jane blocks.

Layout Library

EQ's Dear Jane software includes a layout library where you choose quilt size and block size for a bed or wall quilt. And you can change the dimensions and block size until you get exactly what you want.

Electric Quilt extended their library of border types in the Dear Jane software to include more options. The software allows you to clone borders, duplicating the look of a border but changing its measurements.

The only feature I missed is the ability to add or change blocks. But the software does allow you to add fabrics. It also allows you to group fabrics into palettes so, just the fabrics you collected into a pallete are showing when you want to apply color to your pieces.

The software can also delete all fabrics not used in the current quilt. This saves lots of time paging through unneeded fabrics. And you don't have to delete each fabric separately.

EQ's Dear Jane software provides easy printing of blocks, foundations, templates, and rotary cutting instructions. The wide choice of printing styles can save you a lot of time at the computer or at the photocopy store.

Each block also has a notecard suggesting piecing and applique construction details.

Automatic Resizing

Electric Quilt thought not just of Dear Jane enthusiasts and EQ5 users when designing this product. They thought of everyone and how they could bring them into the world of Baby Jane quilts. Each quilter can select the best-size blocks for her quilt.

The Dear Jane software automatically resizes block dimensions. You can select any finished block size, from one inch to 48 inches, in quarter-inch increments. Larger sizes of your favorite Dear Jane blocks require fewer blocks in a quilt and less time to complete.

EQ's Dear Jane software comes with a single user manual, so everything is at your fingertips. The front section of the book is written as lessons for those new to quilting software or new to the Electric Quilt style.

The last section of the manual is a reference section for seasoned EQ users. The middle section contains 32 full-color photos of finished Baby Jane quilts for inspiration.

Complements Brenda's Book

I continue to use Brenda's book as much as I ever did. But now that I have EQ's Dear Jane software, I use the book differently.

I use the software to print all my blocks in whatever size and construction technique I need -- some as foundations, some with both rotary cutting instructions and templates. It is a lot easier than having to use templates for everything.

If you are planning to make a Dear Jane quilt, you should buy this software. It complements Brenda's book nicely and extends the world of Dear Jane. Electric Quilt did a great job of computerizing Dear Jane.

Where To Buy: Dear Jane Software

Learn more about Dear Jane Software at Joann.com… click the Search button!

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