Wednesday, July 09, 2008

This and that

I'm off again for another busy day. On Wednesdays I leave home before 9:00 and don't get back until after 6:00. That's not too bad except that Choco gets left outside all day without a noontime walk. Choco hates Wednesdays!

I was reminded yesterday that the Noah's Ark block of the month series had moved on to a new block and I was still working on June's. I found a few minutes in the evening and finished it up. It needs a bit more color I think. Someone had the kangaroos holding flowers which was cute so I might add a few more flowers.

Thank you for the comments on the 365 Challenge. I didn't do such a good job of explaining what all the preparation was for this quilt, did I? I'm not sure where I first heard about it but Leanne offered the first challenge and she has directions posted on her website. A whole Yahoo group was made I think, but I never joined that and have just plodded along by myself. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm sure it wasn't me, but someone somewhere suggested making a smaller quilt than the one that Leanne was suggesting (her blocks are larger) and that caught my eye too and a smaller version evolved for me.

The strips (and therefore the blocks) are 3 1/2 inches wide rather than the measurements Leanne gives. I made three sets of blocks,
3 1/2 " by 3 1/2",
3 1/2" by 4 1/2" and
3 1/2" by 5 1/2".

I cut 160 of the 3 1/2" blocks, 160 of the 4 1/2" blocks and 48 of the 5 1/2" blocks. Let's see... Added together that should make 368 blocks.

I divided the three sets of blocks into 16 piles with 10 blocks of 3 1/2", 10 blocks of 4 1/2" and 3 blocks of 5 1/2". That makes 23 blocks in each pile and those piles went into zip lock bags.

That was the preparation part.

Each week I ironed the blocks on freezer paper and wrote the entries with a Pigma pen. I think a wider tip is better because sometimes the finer tip would pull the fabric away from the freezer paper and a simple entry no longer than a couple of sentences long would take me 15 minutes to write!

I'm not much of an artist so I had a terrible time adding little drawings but I did trace over some cute clip art on an old calendar of mine and then color the drawings in with regular crayons and heat set them. I did that only for the month titles but here again, a little more color.

The challenge is keeping up with daily entries which is much more difficult than you might think even if you are a person who likes journaling.

Someone asked me what I'm going to do with this quilt as I don't have a bed and it is too large for a wall. I have no idea. Then why did you make it, my friend asked. I guess the answer is that somewhere generations down the line my great-great-granddaughter or someone will be fascinated by the year in the life of a quilter living in Japan. (I hope.)


9 comments:

Patti said...

I think most of us make many quilts that we have no idea what we are going to do with. After all, do people ask a painter why he or she keeps painting if there is no more room on their walls for pictures? This quilt is an incredible treasure for future generations. I admire you so much for sticking to it through the entire year.

Connie W said...

Kudos to you for finishing. Mine is still in the 'almost finished' stage and remains there, untouched. If I ever get it finished I suppose I'll use a plain backing and have my friend do a large meander or some type of quilting...then it most likely will end up in a closet. Mine has no lovely color like yours. Your quilt looks wonderful to me.

Shelina said...

That was really smart of you to make it smaller than the original size. I can't imagine what the people who made it the original size would do with such huge quilts!

Amanda said...

What a lovely quilt - and a real heirloom for the future. It's the sort of thing you can just 'leave around' all folded up and every now and then pull open and read a little bit of it and continually surprise yourself. It's good to see you back in the swing of things.

theroyalblog said...

Ah-ha! Thank you for the explanation - I had no idea what a 365 quilt was (beyond a block a day).

What a wonderful keepsake. I would absolutely love to have anything like this from one of my ancestors.

:) michele

artfilstitch said...

Your quilt is beautiful and agree that making it smaller was a wise choice. "Less Is More" is a good motto to remember. Your colors are yummy!

andsewitis Holly said...

I do that all the time - make a quilt and wonder afterward what I'm going to do with it. Your 365 turned out beautiful!! I want to make one now. Thanks for the instructions.

Marilyn R said...

Congrats on finishing your 365 Challenge quilt! I think it is great, but I know if I started one I would never finish it! So, congrats again!

Kathy Wagner said...

Wow Tanya! I love your 365 quilt!
That is so inspiring! I still have my last 3 months to finish up, and then to sew it together. Just haven't had time to get to that project. Yours is the first finished one that I have seen!
Congratulations!