Austen Family Album Progressing

This weekend I needed to verify which Austen Family Album blocks I had completed, going through Barbara Brackman's blog posts and pulling out my blocks. I became quite confused, so I started to write names on the backs of the blocks...then it hit me. Why not embroider the names on the blocks? Album quilts often were signed by the block makers, so names on sampler quilt blocks is quite traditional. So I have begun the process of embroidering names.

I also decided to make a Jane Austen Silhouette block. I don't need large bed quilts, and Brackman's suggested settings would be too big. I need to set the blocks side by side, which looks very busy. I thought...a few interspersed blocks with more negative space would give the eye a place to rest.

Here is Jane's before block. It was awfully dull and I decided to add her book titles to the background.

I wanted to imitate Jane's handwriting in the embroidery. I did for the Charles Dickens quilt (which will be layered this weekend for quilting, finally) I went online to research examples. I found a type font based on Jane's handwriting that can be downloaded for free! It is available from several sources.

Here is my Harris Biggs-Wither block. He proposed to Jane, who accepted his offer but after sleeping (or not sleeping) on it she rescinded.

Last night I discovered that Barbara Brackman's January 11, 2015 post on the Austen Family Album blog featured MY QUILTS!!! My Pride and Prejudice storybook patterns and several of my Austen Family Album blocks are featured! I could hardly get to sleep! Thank you, Barbara!