Quilty 365--A Year Long Quilting Journey

Wanna play? As was mentioned in my previous post, I'm starting a new project. Every day for a year I'm going to choose out fabric and sew a simple circle. Since there seemed to be a bit of interest, I decided to make a button and welcome anyone else who wanted to join in the fun!

Quilty 365--A new project

First of all, you'll need to decide on a background color. I chose to go with various {grayed down}cream prints culled from my stash. It will take approximately 5 1/2" to 6 yds. of fabric in all. Feel free to buy a single piece of yardage or scrap it up a bit as I intend to do. The important thing is to stick with a neutral color if you want your circles to 'pop'. Cut background squares at 4 1/2" x 4 1/2". The amount to cut will depend on how many rows of circles you decide on as 365 does not come out evenly in a proper layout.

• 19x20 block quilt will result in 380 background squares
• 20x20 block quilt will result in 400 background squares
• 18x21 block quilt will result in 378 background squares

We'll decide how to deal with those extra background squares later on as we get more comfortable with how the quilt is looking.

Background fabrics

The fabric/colors for each circle will be chosen on a daily basis. The point is be able to look back and see how {and if} our choices change throughout a year. Will they change with the seasons? I know I already chose an orange fabric for Halloween day and I'm not usually cutesy like that! The quilt should end up being a very interesting fabric/color diary and it should absolutely be unique to every single person who plays along!

I personally intend to look in my scrap bin first but will stay open minded to other fabrics in my stash as well. This way I will be making an honest choice every single day of whatever fabric {or fabrics} feel 'right'. This is a project that truly will take a year to put together and will be impossible to jump ahead or power through.

Drawing the circle onto the backside of my chosen fabric...

As you can see, my circle is not a true circle at all. It was hand drawn to look a little flatter at the sides and hopefully a little more primitive looking. The inspiration for my circles is not anything new or earthshaking, but everyone should make what feels 'right' to them for this simple project.

I've already figured out that there are days I'm going to be choosing out my fabric in a bit of a hurry. It's going to be much faster {and more efficient} to use templates. Draw your circle on a piece of paper, transfer it onto template plastic and keep it handy. For the days I want to break my circle down into a patchwork look, I cut out the smaller templates as well, including seam allowances for all. I will be using the sewing machine to sew my multi-fabric circles together, but again, this is a personal choice.

A few options for patchwork circles....

When that particular days circle is cut out and/or sewn together, place it on a background square of fabric. Stitch it to the square of fabric immediately, or wait until you have a little stack of them. My choice is needleturn applique, but there are many, many different ways to approach the stitching part of this project. Keep it simple and use your favorite method, whatever that may be!

There are days I probably won't have time to get to the stitching part at all, but at least I'll have my fabric chosen according to the whims of the day. If you forget a day, try and think back to what sort of day it was. Just take your best guess and move on without agonizing. This is just a little bit of insight into our quilty life! Best to keep it fun and lighthearted!

Stitching circle down to background...

After each circle is stitched down, then carefully cut out the background fabric from behind the applique. Be careful to leave about a quarter inch or so of seam allowance! With a fabric marker, write the day of each circle directly onto that seam allowance--keeping your numbers small and hidden behind the block. This is a simple way to keep track of each days choice in the event we want to have the quilt layout in chronological order. There's no real way to know if that's something we'll even want to do, but this way we can keep track and have that as an option.

Write Day (?) in seam allowance

Feel free to jump in on any day you choose to. I didn't want to wait and start this project on January 1st as I have a history of not keeping up with New Years projects, but you might want to. 365 days is an entire year no matter when you start! As of today, I am on Day 10. And no, I'm still not remembering every day until sometimes late at night! No problem, it's a simple matter to dig through the scrap bin and the stitching can always be done on another day.

Days 1-10 choices with Day 10 still unstitched!

I changed the picture a bit so you could see my silly, less-than-perfect circles. One block was cut just a little narrow as I didn't have quite enough fabric. There are days that only certain fabrics are going to feel right, days that feel more peaceful and other days of that smack of chaos. Choose the fabric that best suits you for that day and don't worry about everything matching up 'just so'. This is a diary. A journey. An honest piece of the quilty you! By using scraps, random patchwork circles and lopsided circles, I'm hoping to achieve something I love and adore in quilts--that wonderfully unique 'human touch'! If you prefer something more ordered and precise, then by all means, work that into your quilt the very best you can!

A little more emphasis on the outline of each circle

I'll try to figure out how to do a linky party at the first of each month for anyone who cares to join in and share. Please don't feel pressured or obligated to join in as I am the worlds worst at keeping up with various QAL's and linky parties. This is something I had already started and want to see my way through just to satisfy some of that curiosity that instigates so many new projects!

Quilty 365--You can only do this one day at a time!

Grab the button on the sidebar {only} if you'd like to and feel free to join me on an interesting quilty journey. I'd be thrilled to have some friends and comrades along for the ride!