January Calendar

 𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯I love, I love, I love my calendar quilt!𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯𝅘𝅥𝅯

I'm working on a new calendar quilt:

I'll admit it.  I wasn't always a fan of calendar quilts but when I made my floral calendar quilt, Kathy exclaimed, "I love that you can use the one quilt all through the year!"

Sorry, I'm not sure when we will have good sunlight again!

What really got me jazzed about calendar quilts was a pattern by Ami Simms called "Dog Yeared".  I was hooked.  I made a lot of these quilts.  Everyone in our family adores dogs and the quilts flew out of my house as quickly as I made them.  Of course I screwed up the first batch of blocks but I used them anyway because my husband and I don't care about that as much.  The dogs aren't supposed to be floating.

The January dog:

There's a good 100 year history on calendar quilts.  Nancy Page published an applique pattern in 1935 and it ran as a block of the month.

For those of you who prefer a more whimsical calendar style quilt, Nancy Page offered "The Old Almanac Quilt" in 1932; designed by Florence La Ganke, the blocks featured astrological signs.

This wasn't the only astrological quilt pattern.  Somewhere in my stash of womens' magazines from the 19-teens or 1920s, I have an ad for an embroidered quilt pattern that featured the signs of the zodiac.

Many of these type of quilts featured motifs for children.  One of my quilts tied comforts I suspect was made by a child.

No post on calendar quilts would be complete without a sunbonnet:

I know that for some folks, these quilts might not be your preference as a gift for a child.  But let me throw this out to you.  I have always had classifications outside the norm for quilts.  One of those designations are what I call learning quilts.  Here's a great example:

A learning quilt can be one that teaches something that the parent or family member values.  Sometimes it's an alphabet quilt like the one above.  It can be a quilt with a prayer.  It can also be a calendar quilt.  

One of the things I did with the Ami Simm's pattern was a series of months of the year wall hangings.  Each month the child in the family got to hang up a new mini-quilt that pertained to the month.  Thus the toddler learned the months of the year and proudly changed the wall hanging his or herself.

I watch HGTV and I often see that young families have what they now call a "playroom" which is in a extra bedroom or what is called a bonus space.  It's the family's attempt to contain the huge amount of toys from the rest of the house.  In the olden Victorian days, we called it a nursery.  A calendar quilt is a great wall hanging to gift to that space, either in a monthly version or a full quilt.  

I would be remiss if I didn't mention cat calendar quilts.  I don't have a pattern to show you but there is one available on Ebay here.  As for my bunny pattern, it was a transfer that I used but I saw there is pattern offered on Etsy here.

Next month I'll share some of the February offerings and hope you enjoy this series.

Have a safe and happy day!