Journal Quilt Tutorial

Some have asked how I'm making my Journal Quilt, so I thought I'd write a tutorial based on the instructions from a long-ago blog that doesn't seem to exist anymore. Fortunately, I had printed her instructions and made some notes of my own, so here goes:

I highly recommend that you prepare in advance of January 1st, unlike me who didn't actually start this till well into January and was playing catch-up for quite a while.

Finished size = 64"x 93" which is approximately Queen Comforter size. This assumes no borders.

Materials:

- Lots of light colored fabric scraps. You could use all one color family, or just mostly creams but                  include some pale colored fabrics for interest. 

- Freezer paper

- 16 quart-sized ziploc bags

- Closeable, portable container for storing the bags of blocks and your pen (portable in case you travel)

- Super-fine-point permanent marker(s), like Micron. I just used black, but you could vary the         colors.

- Fine-point permanent marker, like Sharpie

- Approximately 5.5 yards backing fabric

Cutting: Start with LOTS of 4.5" strips (of various creams, or some light colors)

Subcut into:  48 (4.5"x 6.5") blocks

                     80 (4.5"x 5.5") blocks

                     80 (4.5"x 4.5") blocks

                    160 (4.5"x 3.5") blocks

Keep separated by size. (You can make piles with post-it notes to keep a tally of blocks while you're         cutting.)

Preparing for journalling: 

Lay out a piece of freezer paper, with tacky side up.

On top of this, line up cut blocks, right side up (wrong side to freezer paper) with edges barely touching     each other so that you can iron them onto the freezer paper without getting your iron sticky. Do this         with each block.

Cut the blocks apart again being gentle with the freezer paper so it doesn't come off.

Label the quart-sized bags 1-16. These will hold the blocks for each column, having 23 blocks/days per     column.

In each bag insert: 10 (4.5"x 3.5") blocks

                               5 (4.5"x 4.5") blocks

                               5 (4.5"x 5.5") blocks

                               3 (4.5"x 6.5") blocks

Alternately, you could sew your column together before you do the freezer paper or writing, ironing         freezer paper on after the column is constructed, but I didn't want to have to keep messing with the         ironing and preferred to just keep my blocks as blocks till I'd finished writing on a column's worth.

Journalling:

From bag #1, randomly pick a block, perhaps purposefully leaving larger blocks for when you have lots     to write and smaller blocks for when you don't have much. Randomness means you don't have to            match up a bunch of seams when putting the whole quilt together.

With permanent pen, write the date and your diary entry, BEING SURE TO LEAVE 1/4" SEAM                 ALLOWANCE EMPTY ALL AROUND. The freezer paper should keep the fabric stiff enough for         writing.

    

On some days, I wrote out quotes or Bible verses.

Birthdays were made to stand out by using a thicker permanent marker.

Keep the written-on blocks in their original numbered bags, peeling off the freezer paper as you go. After you have a few bags completed, you can sew them together just for the fun of it, keeping dates in     order with earlier dates being on top and going on down the column. (So, January 1 will top Column     1; January 24 will top Column 2; February 16 will top Column 3, etc.

Or you can wait and sew it all together at the end of the year (New Year's Eve project?).

There is an extra block to allow for Feb 29, and there are extras in July and December also. You could         do something fun on these, like applique or embroidery, or you could write a long enough journal         entry to need two blocks.

IRON THE WRITING TO MAKE IT MORE PERMANENT.

Here's is a break-down of the dates of each column:

    Column 1 - Jan.1-23

    Column 2 - Jan. 24 - Feb. 15

    Column 3 - Feb. 16 - Mar. 9 (includes one block for Feb. 29 or undated)

    Column 4 - Mar. 10 - Apr. 1

    Column 5 - Apr. 2 - 24

    Column 6 - Apr. 25 - May 17

    Column 7 - May 18 - June 9

    Column 8 - June 10 - July 2

    Column 9 - July 3 - 24 (includes one undated)

    Column 10 - July 25 - Aug. 16

    Column 11 - Aug. 17 - Sept. 8

    Column 12 - Sept. 9 - Oct. 1

    Column 13 - Oct. 2 - 24

    Column 14 - Oct. 25 - Nov. 16

    Column 15 - Nov. 17 - Dec. 9

    Column 16 - Dec. 10 - 31 (includes one undated)

Caveat: 

Since I started this so long ago and don't remember what exactly was happening, I should let you know that two of my columns ended up being short. Maybe I cut wrong; maybe I shortened some blocks as a method of erasing; maybe the count in sizes of block is incorrect. I don't know, but here's how I solved it. I just sewed a strip of fabric to the bottoms to even it up. 😁 If I, or you, figure out what went wrong, let's share that so we can fix the tutorial if necessary.

I hope you get to try this. And I hope I finish mine up this month. My kids enjoyed seeing the blocks being written and collected. I'll have to show them the finished product...finally.