Y is for Year Quilts

Early on in my quilting journey I joined an online quilting group called Southern Cross Quilters. Through this group I learned about Year Quilts and I signed up to make one in 2003, my earliest opportunity. 

Making a year quilt involved two things. Firstly keeping a diary. I had never been very good at this but for the next few years when I participated in the year quilt I kept one. For each day, each diary entry the participant chose a piece of fabric to represent the day. A scrap of the fabric was glued into the diary next to the entry and the rest of it was incorporated into a quilt, which was the second part of the deal.
 

The quilt was pieced over the course of the year and at the end of the year you would have a complete quilt (or at least when ever you finished putting the quilt together you would have a quilt)



The above is example is from my first year quilt in 2003. The back of the quilt featured fabric my daughter bought me back from her year in Malaysia as an exchange student along with the signature blocks that fellow year quilters exchanged that year.

Selection of the fabric could be made on whatever basis you wanted so long as you justified it in your journal. Special days were often much easier than ordinary days and sometimes the connections were very tenuous or forced. I admit that at times I would go and do something on a day just so I could use a particular fabric I had, or to at least have something that I could use. Days I sewed were always good as I could use a piece of the fabric I had been working with. Easy.

We had a special email group online, a subgroup from SCQ, to talk about how we were going and especially to swap fabrics. Once a month we had a special swap. Participants would send it up to 6 pieces (6.5" square) of 5 different fabrics and we would get back 30 different pieces of fabric. The fabric was always picture fabric, sometimes known as conversation  or eye-spy fabric. This way we could build up a stash of fabric from which to choose.

Over the years that I participated I chose several different designs for my quilts. The first year I made calendar blocks, set out just like that years calendar.

Another year I made a jar quilt design with each jar being a week and the different fabrics layered into the jar.  At the moment I can't find the quilt and it seems I didn't take a photo of it which is both surprising and disappointing. I hope it turns up. Must be hiding in a cupboard somewhere.

2006 we were going overseas for 7 weeks so I wanted a hand project so did quilt as you go (QAYG) hexagons.

2007 was my final year. I started doing very small pieces to make a wall hanging as I felt I had enough big quilts. I never finished it. The design went crooked and my heart wasn't in it and I stopped writing the diary and it all fell apart. I still have the couple of months worth of pieces I had stitched in my UFO pile. I hope to incorporate it into a quilt backing one day

A legacy from my year quilts includes 3 sliding drawers full of picture fabrics. I used to sort the squares into categories to make it easier to select what I wanted for each day. These fabrics have formed the basis of many eye spy quilts that I have made over the years since then.

I might try making another year quilt one day if there is a special year coming up. Till then I'll continue to raid my stash of picture fabric for other quilts.

Hope you all are having a good year

Throwback Thursday -Calendar Quilts

I started quilting in 2001 and joined some online groups shortly after including Southern Cross Quilters. Through that group I joined a sub group called Year Quilters. The idea of a year quilt is that the quilter keeps a diary and based on the diary they choose fabric for each day to put into a quilt. A sample of the fabric chosen is also glued into the diary. The quilter was free to choose whatever pattern they liked for the quilt. The group shared progress and participants could also be part of picture fabric swaps every month or so. It was a way of getting a range of eyespy type fabrics to be used in our quilts.

I completed 4 year quilts  2003-2007

I tried to keep my diary up to date, writing it every day or every couple of days but found that would leave fabric selections to do a week or three at a time as I would have to dig through my stash in order to find suitable fabric. Sometimes I chose a picture fabric to represent something that happened that day... a coffee cup if I went out for cuppa with some friends, a cat if my cat did something special. Other times I used the fabric I had been sewing with that day.

The bi monthly swaps were great for building up my stash of picture fabrics. We swapped 6.5" squares. We would send in up to 5 swatches of 6 different fabrics to our swap co-ordinator and would get back 30 different fabrics.

 Over time I developed a system where I would sort my fabric into categories and store them in zip lock bags that I had labelled. Eventually I got some plastic drawers to store them in and I sorted the categories alphabetically into the drawers. I still store my picture fabrics in these drawers.

My first year quilt, 2003 was done as a Calendar Quilt. Each  month was its own block and it was set out like a calendar The one pictured below was for January. The first of January that year was a Wednesday.

As part of the Year Quilt we had a signature squares swap during the year. Each participant swapped blocks with their name and the type of quilt they were making along with a 6.5" square which somehow represented them or their quilt. I incorporated them into the back of the quilt along with some fabric that my daughter Fangirl had bought me back from Malaysia. She had spent the year in Malaysia as an AFS exchange student so this fabric was very significant for our year.

I have another 3 year quilts I can share with you... but perhaps not today. I realise I don't have many photos of them. I will have to drag them out and get some better photos of them

And that's my Throwback Thursday for this week. Linking up with Throwback Thursday on Quilting Jenny