Dear Jane who?

In 1863 during the Civil war, a woman named Jane A. Stickle decided to make a sampler quilt. One hundred sixty-nine blocks, 52 triangles, 4 corner kites and 5602 pieces later... she had a quilt that, to this day, still leaves quilters in awe.

Inspired by Brenda Papadakis's book Dear Jane: The Two Hundred Twenty-Five Patterns from the 1863 Jane A. Stickle Quilt, this software will help you see how other quilters have made their own beautiful Dear Jane quilts and even design your own on your computer screen. From there you can print patterns for your quilts or the blocks, read sewing instructions, print quilt labels, surf Dear Jane web sites and so much more. Design and learn with Dear Jane.

1. Use the Patterns
Don't sit there tracing, drafting and re-drafting the blocks yourself; print them out from Dear Jane! This program includes all the block patterns to make the original sampler quilt, plus over 300 more! That's a total of over 550 patterns that can be printed in any size. These blocks include:
* 169 center blocks
* 194 center block variations (These blocks are for alternate piecing methods; you choose whether you would rather do appliqué, rotary cutting, or paper piecing!)
* 125 blocks not included in the original quilt (log cabins, flying geese, stars, etc.)
* 4 corner kites
* 52 triangles
* blocks to create a simple scalloped border or the complex scalloped border from the classic quilt
* and more

2. Design Quilts
All of the powerful quilt design features of Electric Quilt are here!

* Design your own quilt – traditional or contemporary
* Start with the classic 1863 Dear Jane quilt
* Design one from scratch and choose your blocks and fabrics
* Use the Dear Jane Project Wizard to guide you through designing a new quilt
* Choose a quilt layout from the "Layout Library," where quilts are pre-sized to be king, queen, ..., all the way down to placemat sizes
* Unlimited borders in 23 different styles including special kites and scallops not even found in EQ
* New Recolor Tool works like magic

3. Color with Fabric
There are over 2,500 scanned fabrics in Dear Jane, and if those aren't enough, you can even scan in and save your own fabrics! Check out the Fabric and Palette "Libraries" in Dear Jane to see the many choices.

Fabric Library:
* Browse fabrics by color and find the shade you are looking for
* Use any of the Dear Jane look-alikes to make an authentic Dear Jane with look-alike fabrics you may find in stores





Jane's A -1 block from 1863
[Jane's quilt center was 13 by 13. The blocks they are known by letters (A - M) and numbers (1 -13).]





A-1 look-alikes
from Benartex, Four Corners Designs, Hoffman and Timeless Treasures





Or, instead of getting fabrics one by one from the library, load an entire palette of coordinating scanned fabrics with just a few clicks. There are 23 palettes in the Palette library ranging from:

* 1930's
* Batiks
* Civil War fabrics
* Neutrals
* Plaids
* Redwork
* Scrappy
* Stained Glass
* Tropical
* and more...

You can even create and save your favorite or your own scanned fabrics as a group in the palette library.

4. Print Patterns, Quilts, and Yardage Estimates

Print your own Dear Jane block patterns in any size, as blocks, templates, foundation patterns, or rotary cutting charts. You can even print the blocks just as they appear in Brenda's Dear Jane book! (Did we mention that you can print them in any size? Just because Jane's blocks were all 4.50" by 4.50", doesn't mean your blocks need to be that size too.)

* Templates - Specify the size of seam allowance around each patch. Move or delete unnecessary templates before you print.
* Foundation Patterns - Dear Jane numbers each pattern, separating units and adding seam allowance. Move or delete unnecessary foundation pattern sections before you print.
* Blocks - Print them as line drawings, in gray scale, in color, as Brenda's patterns, or as quilting stencils! Print off your favorite blocks as line drawings and make quick coloring book pages for children.
* Rotary Cutting Charts - Print rotary cutting charts for blocks in Dear Jane.
* Quilts - Print your quilts as line drawings or colored with fabrics.
* Fabric Yardage Estimates - Calculate yardage in inches or centimeters and print yardage charts.

5. Learn About Jane and Her Quilt
Read about Jane's life, see where the quilt is now and even zoom in to inspect the quilt close up.

6. Watch video interviews with Brenda Papadakis
Hear how Brenda fell in love with the quilt that changed her life.

7. Find block tips and project ideas
Read Brenda's sewing instructions for each block. Take a 12 - Lesson Dear Jane class from Brenda as you make her small "In the Manner of Jane" wallhanging, while learning the techniques to construct all the sampler blocks. Make a Dear Jane "Table Topper," start a row quilt with friends, and much, much more.

8. Chart your progress with "My Block Chart" and Certificates
To chart the progress of your quilt, you can fill "My Block Chart" with scans of your Dear Jane blocks! Or if you don't have access to a scanner, print off a copy of the chart and put and "X" through each block as you complete it. Print certificates of completion to mark the milestones on your Jane Journey. Or surprise a Dear Jane friend with a certificate. There are nine certificates to choose from, each in three styles.

9. Browse the stunning gallery of finished Dear Jane quilts
Making a quilt like Jane Stickle's or using many of the blocks in her quilt is possible. See the inspiring finished Dear Jane quilts on display in the quilt gallery and in project ideas. There are over 60 quilts, many of which have close-ups of blocks, stitching, or quilt labels as well as notes from the quilters themselves.

Dear Jane software includes an installation CD and 264 page user manual with full color gallery quilts, 7 lessons, as well as how-to instructions for program features.

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• Windows 98 / 2000 / ME / XP/ Vista

System requirements
• 575 MB free hard disk space

• 64 MB RAM suggested

• 16-bit/high-color monitor capable of 800x600 resolution

• CD-ROM drive

• Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher
(download the most current version of Internet Explorer for free from www.microsoft.com)

• To watch Brenda's Video Interviews (*.AVI format)
Windows Media Player
(set as default player for .AVI video files)
(download the most current version of Windows Media Player for free from www.microsoft.com)

• To view and print the Journal pages (*.PDF format)
Adobe Reader
(download the most current version of Acrobat Reader for free from www.adobe.com)
* will not run on Windows 95 or Windows NT -
your computer lacks Windows files from Microsoft that are needed for the program to run properly, which cannot be installed on your operating system