Quilt Journaling

Would you want to make a Journal quilt but you don’t know how to make it, today I’ll tell you how I made one.

The main purpose to make a journal quilt is to learn more about quilting techniques, day by day we can read about new ways to make a quilt, from hand made to making a quilt with the best sewing machines that will help you to make a quilt in less than one day.

I remember the first time I read about making a journal quilt on the internet it was about learning something new to work on a different block every month, at the end of the year I will have 12 different blocks finished.

It doesn’t sound bad, as if you work on a single block every month, you will have enough time to work on it.

This week I finished my first Journal Quilt, I began to work on it a few years ago, I need to be honest with you, I worked on making a block every month, but when I got 11 blocks finished this quilt got in a drawer and I never worked on it again.

Next year I worked in a new Journal Quilt and I finished it, I made a wall hanging, this quilt is today in Puebla Mexico and it’s part of my private collection. The following year I made my third journal quilt and today it’s a wall hanging at my home in Canada.

As 2017 arrived, I thought about making a new journal quilt this year, but I traveled to Mexico for a few weeks and I made the blue king size quilt and I didn’t have time to start a new journal quilt.

A month ago I took this quilt out of the drawer and I began to work on it again, as I looked to each block, I decided I had to work a little bit more on each block, some more stitches here and there, adding little pieces of fabric here and there and then I worked to make the last block.

12 Quilt Blocks to make what?

It’s how many quilters like to finish their journal quilts as a book, and I love this idea but not for this quilt.

If I make a book of it, it will be kept in a box or in a drawer for ever, I like more the idea to make a small quilt of it as a wall hanging, this way I can hang it on a wall and I will look at it every day.

Big or small, does the size of a quilt matter?

I don’t think there’s any rule about how big or small a block should be when you make this kind of quilt.

As a rule, and because it’s easy to work on it, some quilters like to use the A4 paper size (8 x 11 inches) two of my journal quilts were made with this block size and I can say it’s easy to work on the blocks and it’s easy to share the patterns as a PDF file with other quilters.

The quilt I finished this past week, blocks are bigger than A4 paper size, but I like the size of this quilt.

Small Blocks to make a quilt.

If you decide to work on small blocks, it won’t take you lots of time to finish each block, and once you finish your 12 blocks you can keep them as a book or a small quilt.

How small a quilt block should be?

As small as you want to, some quilters work on small blocks as 1 X 1 inch, they are called inches, there are many beautiful examples of mini quilts made with inches on the internet.

3 x 3, 4 x 4, or 5 x 5 inches will be a good small block size to try.

Medium size blocks to make a quilt.

6 x 6, 7 x 7 or 8 x 8 inches will be a medium block size, you can work a little bit more on these blocs, work maybe on different stitches or some applications like I do on my journal quilts or a different quilting technique.

Once you finish these 12 blocks you can keep them as a book or sew all the blocks together to make a small quilt.

A small quilt can be perfect for a table runner, a wall hanging, a lap quilt or a baby quilt.

Large blocks to make a quilt.

How big is a large block?

10 x 10 , 12 x 12 or even 14 x 14 inches,  you will be working on large blocks but the good thing about these large blocks is by the end of the year you will have 12 big blocks to make a quilt.

So many good things about a journal quilt I don’t see why not to make one!

13 Lunas Journal Quilt.

I decided to call this journal quilt 13 lunas, (13 moons) in Spanish for one reason, as I live in Quebec where multiculturism is part of life here and as a Mexican quilter is my mother tongue.

The year I made this journal quilt had a blue moon, that means there was two full moons in one month, and I worked on a story about one little dog that talked to the full moon every month.

As I was working on this quilt these past weeks, I took a few photos of my work on different blocks, today I will share with you some of those moments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have any questions about this quilt, leave a comment here and I will reply to it, if you want to leave a comment on my Facebook fans page you can visit it at Alejandra’s Quilt Studio.

I also made a short video of this Journal Quilt (sorry it’s in Spanish)

My next Journal Quilt.

Should I wait for 2018 to start my new journal quilt or not? I would love to hear what do you think!

Would you like to work on your own journal quilt (free) along with me, as I work on my next journal quilt?