Dear Jane!

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the making of Jane Stickle's quilt, now generally known as Dear Jane. The quilt has been reproduced and reinterpreted by many quilters all over the word.

Among the celebratory events were the Australian Quilters' Association exhibition of Dear Janes in Victoria in February, and recent exhibitions in Brussels and Nantes (France), of  more than 100 'Dear Janes' as part of the Pour l’Amour du Fil event in April, organised by Quilt Mania magazine.

You can treat yourself to some great photos from the Nantes exhibition on the Faberdashery (click on an image for a larger view), and Batikquilt blogs.

If you enter 'Dear Jane Nantes 2013' into a Google image search, you will gain immediate access to many, many more images from the French event ... or visit this Dear Jane Quilts Printerest board, with 284 'pins' of Dear Janes and its derivatives,

To make your own Dear Jane quilt, you might start with Brenda Papadakis's book of patterns, Dear Jane, which is widely available, or links to blogs and a 2010 block of the month project on the website.

The original quilt, completed by Jane Stickle in 1863 is in the collection of the Bennington Museum, Vermont, where it is displayed each year in September-October.

Added 11/5/2013:
More interesting and beautiful examples of Dear Jane quilts can be found on these blogs:

• Entre Nous - the text is in French, the pictures are universally understood (thanks to Creative Dabbling for this link)
• Quiltsmith - the last image in this post is a black and white Dear Jane