Since January, I have been making monthly journal quilts. It started when I saw a swap on Swap-Bot about doing a journal quilt each month. It was suggested that the year-long project have a theme.
For my quilts, I chose the theme “Happenings and Highlights.” Ideally, each journal quilt will reflect positive things that happen during the month so it can be a tactile, quilted image that brings back happy memories and can be looked at when I need encouragement.
This month, the quilt is about 9” x 12” and made from 15 different fabrics. All the fabrics are cotton. The embroidery floss and thread used is cotton.
The individual shapes all are ironed onto a base fabric (the orange piece of fabric).
The top of the grass is blanket-stitched onto the background, and the snood and beak are straight-stitched onto the turkey body. The remainder of the pieces are machine-stitched onto the backing.
This month I didn’t do a binding since they pose a perennial challenge. Instead, I made the quilt like a blanket without a binding.
I did some quilting on the orange background, sun, and grass. I used similar colors to the fabric (e.g., yellow quilting on the sun, orange quilting on the background, green for the grass) and kept the orange thread in the bobbin so the back of the quilt is one color.
Here are this month’s highlights and how they are represented in the quilt:
-Participated in “Art Every Day Month” – Found this challenge on the internet. The goal is to create something every day – whether it is a small project or a larger one. It could be something in the visual arts, music, photography, or writing…or it even could be being creative in the kitchen.
The point is that you carve some time each day for yourself to express yourself creatively.
I enjoyed doing embroidery and cross-stitched projects that I had in my “to do” bag for a very long time. This month, I completed many of those projects.
There are still more, but doing the ones I did has motivated me to keep working on them throughout the winter.
In the quilt, I did blanket-stitching and straight stitching by hand to represent Art Every Day Month.
- Completion of repairs in the mudroom and kitchen – Back in August, there was storm damage in the mudroom.
In November, the ceiling, closet, and floors were completely redone. This has been such a day-brightener as these are the first two rooms when one enters the home (living in an 1890’s farm home means coming into the “service” door versus the front door).
The acoustic tile ceiling was replaced with a wood ceiling to match the walls. It is so beautiful now to walk into the room – especially with the walls cleaned and sealed.
The windows all have trim around them.
The floors no longer have ripped linoleum (from being improperly installed nine years ago) and aren’t curling up at the edges. There’s new quarter round molding all around the edges of the floor.
While I was at it, I had the majority of the blinds re-strung in the house (the cats damaged them many years ago). Now they have new cord/string holders near the top of the blinds so that the cats can’t reach the cords and play and eat them.
It’s so simple – just having things in good working order and looking nice- that can lift one’s spirits. The sun – which I equate with cheerfulness and happiness – reflects these home improvements.
- Celebrated Sophia and Olivia’s Adoption Days - On November 26th, we celebrated Sophia’s 9th anniversary of her Adoption Day and on November 17th, we celebrated Olivia’s 7th anniversary of her Adoption Day.
The girls and I looked through their memory & gift bin; they touched (or tried on in Olivia’s case) the clothes they wore on the day they were adopted; I read them each stories I wrote about their early months and up until the time they came home to Minnesota; and we went out to eat at their favorite Chinese restaurant.
On Sophia’s Adoption Day, we also went to see the movie “Tangled” which both girls have wanted to see. It’s actually a very funny movie.
In the quilt, there are several pieces that represent the girls and their Adoption Days:
o blue feather (Olivia’s favorite color);
o cat feather (both the girls said they are thankful for the cats when asked what 5 things they are thankful for);
o green/purple swirl feather (to me, it reminds me of the ocean and the waves – we had to cross the ocean twice when adopting the girls – once in 2001 and then again in 2003);
o panda feather (the girls are both from China where we saw pandas. We all want to go back someday and also volunteer at the panda research institute which is about 3-4 hours from Olivia’s orphanage); and
o purple feather (Sophia’s favorite color).
- Held Thanksgiving Dinner – This year there were 17 people at Thanksgiving.
The girls and I did a lot of crafts and cooking to prepare for the big day. It was a lot of fun making things together and then seeing how everyone liked what we made at Thanksgiving.
The turkey on the quilt represents all the preparations and the actual celebration of Thanksgiving.
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