Sincerely Jane Challenge Rug

The monthly update pictures are due in a day or two so thought I'd better hustle and pull some loops to make a little progress since the last month's update.  So I finished the last two blocks at the bottom...it's getting close to completion, yippee. 

Now all I have to do is hook the remaining border triangles, steam and bind it.  I'm quite happy with the softness of the look and colors I chose and extremely happy that I chose a smaller size for the project.  I cannot imagine the work some of the gals have who decided to hook the entire Jane Stickle quilt dimensions.  Whew, that would be quite a task but sure would make quite a statement as a room rug.

For those of you who are just now joining or reading my blog, this challenge originated on the Yahoo Rughookers group and was inspired by the Jane Stickle quilt she made in 1863.  The challenge was just a personal challenge so that we could choose the size rug we wanted and pick any of the square designs we wished to put in our rugs. 

Brenda Papadakis wrote a book called Dear Jane and kept a journal to Jane as she followed Jane Stickle's quilt pieces to replicate the quilt.  Brenda also made those exact pattern designs into precisely shaped 4 1/2" square designs and provided those pattern pieces in the book as well.  Since the book Dear Jane is copyrighted we could not use that name for our challenge, thus calling it the Sincerely Jane challenge.   I chose patterns which could accommodate a #8 strip but used #8.5 for the sashing.  Here is a picture of the book from which I chose the pattern pieces.



You will notice that my border triangles aren't as deep as those on the original quilt.  Since my rug is smaller in size than the quilt I was afraid to make the border triangles deeper would over power the look of the rug itself.

So now I'll put my Frost Sheep back on my frame and work on that for a while.  Soon I'll need to draw out an 8" square design to hook for the Sensational Seasonal Swap which also is hosted by Yahoo Rughookers.  If you are interested in joining please check it out on http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rughookers/. 

Back to Sincerely Jane

It's that time to post an updated picture of our Sincerely Jane Challenge rugs on Rughookers Yahoo group so yanked my out to work on a couple trials in the border.  One of the gals has completed her huge rug already.  I drew mine with fewer squares and I'm glad because this size suits me much better, plus I can work on other hooking projects  also.  Here is what mine looks like now.

My plans were to just have one row of the light hooked around the border but might try another row to see if it pulls the rug together better.  The challenge ends in April 2012 so there is plenty of time for me to work on other projects and still get this one done in time. 

For those of you who did not read my previous post a few months ago, the Sincerely Jane challenge was a result of someone posting a picture of a quilt made based on the one made by Jane Stickle in 1863.  Brenda Papadakis kept a record of her journey making a quilt and developing the patterns for the quilt.  The book was aptly named   "Dear Jane" and since the book is copyrighted we could not name our challenge the same so call it Sincerely Jane. 

Also on Yahoo Rughookers group I've joined the Sensational Seasonal Swap and have started working on that one since we have to ship to our swap mate no later than the middle of November.  It is not necessary to commit to hooking all four seasons but think that I'd like to do that since the size is only 8" x 8" square.  We are to work on the winter season for this first swap and the next would be a spring theme.  The designs can be anything we choose and we know our swap mate's names so have an opportunity to get to know them during the process as we e-mail back and forth.

The dimensions are required to be an exact 8x8 in case a recipient of all 4 mats would like to attach them four in a row or two on top and two on the bottom.  So we don't have to bind but rather have an 1" excess which we turn under and base.  That way the recipient can decide if they want to bind them individually or as I described earlier.  And our swap mates will change with each season just in case someone decides to not continue with the next seasonal swap.  But I'm in for all 4 seasons.