May block

I can't believe it's almost June. I chose 2 different ideas for the month of May. Fist I did a pieced 6" basket for May Day:

Then I decided that Mother's day was more important and I pieced a 'house on a hill' house and appliqued it to some ground and the fancy sky fabric that suggests a sunrise.

Mother's block is a house with a birthday cake in the window with 3 candles- very small candles since her birthday and 2 of her daughter's birthdays are in May.

Just so happens that Thursday is applique day over at Angie's blog. I linked up with her...some Thursday I will have a current project. This month quilt is a series I am doing all year to motivate me to finish the blocks for my Mother.

April block

Yes, I know it it May. (Happy Mayday everyone!)
Here are the individual April Blocks from the 2 finished quilts:

I thought the above had really skinny legs and it wasn't my own design so I designed this Sunbonnet Sue:

I loved her; but now? Not so much. Saturday I appliqued it on a 6 inch block....She was leaning forward too much so I tried to fix her by trimming the block, I also took the umbrella off since the fabric was too loosely woven to be able to get the point sewn down neatly.........She just didn't look right. So.....

here is my final version of April, a more traditional 'Sue. The pattern was taken off a Sue quilt my Mother made but I added the umbrella and changed the feet and hand.

We could play 'one of these is not like the other'. See if you can see what I changed this morning.

•  I added the point and handle to the umbrella
• I enlarged the hand
• I moved the sleeve up
• I brushed the lint off the block

I made these changes sitting in the parking lot at the high school waiting for Andrew to come get his science project. (He runs every morning and we hesitate to take big projects to leave in the locker room.) I got there 10 minutes early....he finished 15 minutes early so went to wait in the library. No surprise that he forgot I would be waiting for him. I had enough time to redo the hand and arm AND do the embroidery. It really was a nice pleasant way to do it. Excellent lighting. Nice breeze. : )

card

I made a card using the applique block. Initially I cut a piece of poster board like this;

(cut 8" X 16" with a window cut on one end. ) Then I cut it again; 8" x 24 (and threw away the first one), with a window cut in the middle section. When folded it looks like this inside:
Using a non sticky tape (obviously it has to have stickiness ...just use a low-sticky tape) tape the fabric to the middle then fold it over. Here is my finished card;With lots of room to write inside. It will need a BIG envelope.

March block

March is almost gone... I just barely finished this;
I went to Shop Hop last week and found the front bluebonnets and had to redesign my block to put them in the foreground . The first one I did had the pastel rainbow leading your eye off the quilt.
This one has gold lame coins.
My next block is April!

February block

Did you notice that February disappeared? I heard a song yesterday it basically said, 'remember when I was young and so were you and time stood still?' It no longer stands still (does that mean I am not young?) and the month just races on...Here is my calendar quilt:
Here you can see the quilts close to each other. The top one has 9" blocks the bottom has 6"The 9" block needed more than just a heart so I added this bird and branch...kind of Noah-ish.
Just some notes;

• fold and cut a heart
  
• if using ruffled lace take off that yukky stiff binding and re-ruffle it yourself
• The bird has crosshatching, with permanent fine tip marker, under the body to make the wing sink back a bit--a virtual shadow instead of a separate wing piece.
• 6"heart has a small piece of very pretty old eyelet lace across it and a satin ribbon bow appliqued down. It also has a square of a pink print behind the heart.

January Block

Years and years ago I was a member of a guild in Baytown, TX. I participated in our secret sister program but I had no money to spend on the s.s. every month, (1988? it was about 23 years ago when I had 4 young children at home). So I designed and appliqued a simple 6 inch block for her each month. Here is an old photo of that quilt;The Secret Sister hired Jan Beaman to put the quilt together for her and it made a very sweet quilt. So I made another set; increasing the block size to 9 inch, changed some of the blocks, and taught it as a class at Jan's quilt shop. Later I also started 6" blocks for my Mother, (I made each into a card for 5 different occasions) THOSE ARE NOT DONE YET.
This is my January block:
The design came from an old calendar; why didn't I think I could draw a snowman? I made the blocks in 1994. I quilted it on my Bernina in 2004. It is one my quilts that I can hang in my home any time of the year; which turns out nice since I'm not up to changing quilts so far this year; it's been hanging since Thanksgiving.
I'll show the other blocks occasionally in the next couple of months. I hesitate to declare that I will finish Mother's blocks so that I can post them here; but that IS the plan. Good luck to me.
In case you are interested;

• I used 2 layers of a thin polyester batting for the snowman.
• The green scarf is cut 2" wide with a torn edge for the fringe.
• I would use french knots for the mouth now.
• The arms are embroidered on the 6" version but appliqued on the 9" version.

calendar quilt

I got the kids on the roof early yesterday to show Jeffrey's quilt and grabbed this one too. (Actually I was trying to find my Patriotic one to grab; that will have to found and posted about later.) I was surprised that they didn't complain more that they did. It gets hot early...actually it's hot all the time here but the roof hadn't had the sun shining on it for very long, so was not 'burning feet ' hot yet.

One year our guild had a secret sister exchange and I had NO money to spend so each month I appliquéd a 6 inch block for her. She hired someone to make it into quilt for her and it was so sweet I decided to do this but make the blocks larger. It's not as cute as the 6 inch version but it will have to do.

I designed most of these blocks and taught an appliqué class at a small quilt shop; The Rocking Chair in Baytown may years ago. If you look at the slate on September I wrote 112 meaning months 1- 12 and 94, the year I made the blocks; the 5 and 01 is the date I finished it. I also machine quilted my wedding date in the wedding cake that is in June's spot although my wedding was in August. I finished it when I realized I had several seasonal quilts to display but nothing to cover the months not covered by hearts, flags, or holly. Really since then I realize that January is the only month this gets out and I'm usually so worn out from Christmas that I don't bother.