A Quilt to Pass the Time...

Throughout history women have used quilting as a way to pass the time

- such as when a husband or son was off at war like the Dear Jane Quilt.

That would keep you busy right?

But what a cool thing to do with your time - at the end of the war she actually had something to show for her time - not just a bunch of worrisome nights.

Well my mom, sister, and I have decided to do the same thing while I am in Japan.  We are going to make 36 quilt blocks (one a month).  We have chosen a color palate so that all of the bocks will coordinate, meaning our quilts will match.  At the end, we will make 3 quilts, 12 blocks each, so that we will each have something to commemorate that time (and use it as kind of a countdown system).  So here are our rules - and we haven't come up with a catchy name for this project either, so if you think of one we are open to suggestions :)

RULES:

1. Prewash fabrics

2.  Each finished block must be 20 1/2" x 20 1/2"

3.  The color palate is Orange, Yellow, Turquoise, Navy, and muslin.

4.  You must embroider your initials and the month/year onto your block

5.  Your block must be mailed to the next person by the 7th of the month

(we're going to take turns ex: Oct. mom, Nov. me, Dec. joanna, Jan. mom, Feb. me, March, joanna etc. etc.)

6.  We will mail our block, plus the previous blocks to the next person so that we can see the progress, but we will only do this for 12 blocks, then we will start over ( we didn't want to have to mail tons of blocks )

7.  At the end, we will have a bee.  We will put all 36 blocks in a bag and each grab 12 blocks without looking.  Then we'll piece our quilt tops! 

I'm pretty excited.  We will each have a sampler-style quilt at the end of the three years!

xoxo

jessica