Jane Austen was the first quilt I completed. Being the first quilt and wanting to take an embroidered portrait and marry it with fabric, the cohesion of the two here in my opinion seems strained. Nevertheless, Jane Austen has a very interesting place in literature. She is one of our first women novelists. Her novels were of manners, and relationships and love. Jane spent her life observing a class of people socially envied and idle. This quilt was constructed mostly of grain sack material from the 1920’s. The appliquéd element (the people sitting in the theatre) is taken from heavy upholstery fabric. I used this element to perhaps have Jane viewed and on stage herself…a turn of the tables, if you will. I chose Jane for the style and imagery in her novels and the speed in which they are read. The syntax is light, humorous, and delivered in break-neck speed.