Join me for a year of quilting!

I've written about my quilting friends, the Friendship Quilters before. we get together monthly for some gabbing, some eating, some show-n-tell, some encouragement and some inspiration from one another.

usually we do a monthly block raffle, but for 2011 we're going to do something a bit different. i thought some of my readers might like to join in. (but if you're reading this sometime after the new year, feel free to jump right in. I'll be happy to help you catch up!)

this year we're going to make a calendar quilt. (pictured above) i made one of these almost 13 years ago with the Piecmakers Quilt Guild of the Susquehanna Valley. (the guild i attended before we moved to Bradford county) i designed this quilt using my EQ5.

every month, we will each make one block, for ourselves, representative of that month. then, at the end of the year, we'll all have a twin-ish size friendship/calendar quilt ready for the borders.

here's the rough schedule:

• January: pine tree
• February: Dresden plate w/ heart center
• March: jack in the pulpit
  April: ???
• May: basket w/ flowers
• June: steps to the altar or bride's bouquet
• July: rail fence flag
• August: corn and beans
• September: schoolhouse
• October: leaves and diamonds
• November: flying geese
• December: bow tie wreath

the size of the quilt as I've designed it is 72" X 86". here are the fabric requirements, as listed by EQ5. (which can sometimes be a bit off, so don't take them as gospel!)

• red: 1 yard
• orange: 1½ yards
• yellow: ½ yard
• green: 1 yard
• blue: 3 yards (cut your 6" outside border first)
• purple: ½ yard
• brown: 3 yards (cut your borders first)
• cream (background): 2½ yards
  

of course the colors are just suggestions- i tend to use those colors as a base, and then go from there. ie: pink, lemon, lime, aqua, lilac and grey, with black for the background:

see what a difference that makes?

I'll provide the patterns around the first of each month, starting with January 1, so be sure and stop by! you can e-mail me at: djcap at frontiernet dot net, and I'll make sure that you get the patterns, either by e-mail or snail mail. if you'd like, I'll also mail you an outline of the quilt, so you can color it in to get an idea of what your own color choices will look like.

I'm sure I've forgotten something, (I've never done this before!) but we'll work out the bugs as we go along. i hope to have some of you join me- let's quilt together!