Thursday 24 December 2009

It’s a BOD not a BOM. :-)

A BOD?? A block of the day, but don’t panic you only have to cut a square a day, not piece a block. :-)

I heard about ‘Calendar Quilts’ a few years ago & immediately had a picture in my mind of what they would look like. I went surfing & found they were nothing like I pictured so I started one in my style. Well like a lot of things in my life, it all petered out after a few months. The following year I picked up where I left off & again failed. Not surprising as the I was then thrown into the worst 18 months of my life, where everything ground to a halt. Now things have been on an even keel for most of this year I feel I’m back in control & next year I’m going to make my calendar quilt. :-)

So enough of the waffling here’s the idea. Every single day of the year you need to cut a 2 1/2" square of fabric to represent your day. It pays to have a good stash of novelty/conversation prints to use, you also need to have a diary to document what each block represents. This means you might just write a comment each day then sit down once a week & cut 7 squares for the previous 7 days. I wouldn’t recommend leaving it longer than 7 days because it all starts to feel a bit too hard to catch up. At the end of each month you can join up your month of squares & embroider the name of the month across the top or bottom.

It’s a good idea to draw up each month on interfacing then you can pin each day in place.

This is a fun way to document a year of your life & the diary means that future generations can ‘read’ your quilt & know what Mum/Grandma was doing.

Here’s a pic of a blocks I started in years past. I will change a few things on the next one, I won’t use white for the spare squares I think it looks too bland.

january

If you’d like to make a Calendar Quilt too perhaps we could set up a support group & post some pics as we finish each month. Oh & don’t think your life has to full of excitement to make one of these. The simplest thing might be the thing that stands out in your day, like a beautiful blue sky or a pretty butterfly you see in your garden. It does make you sit & think about your day whereas often days slide by without much thought. I know that’s been true for me.

2 comments:

Ozjane said...

I began one a few years ago using the fusible pellon with the squares on it...I think mind were on point.
I got to 3 months.....made a good cushion color.
What bogged me down was trying to find a piece that said something about that day. I think if I did it again it would be more random.
Good luck..Sheila made a lovely one with 7 petals on a flower...each flower a week..I think that was it.

cinzia said...

Ok will give it a try... I think I may go with my yoyo quilt. I hav already made many of the yoyos but will target sewing a new one onto the quilt each day... that has a possibility of being an achievable target. No the yo yo won't necessarily reflect what happened that day but such is life.