Quilt Journal
When we moved to our current home, I ran across a big black binder notebook that my husband had 'tried' to throw in the trash to avoid packing. When I rescued it and began looking through the pages I got a rush of memories from when I made my first quilts back in the 70's. Each page had a picture of a quilt, samples of the fabrics used, measurements of the quilt, a short paragraph of why I made the quilt, who it was for, and what I was thinking about while working on it (keeping in mind that most of my early quilts were hand-quilted).
Over the years, I have made hundreds of quilts and wallhangings. I can not even pretend to remember all of them. My first quilt - I went to Zayre's up in Plattsburgh, New York. I picked out several fabrics of varied fabric content and paid a whopping 77 cents a yard. Now, keep in mind, this was 1978, my husband was in the Air Force and there were not many quilt shops around back then. We didn't even have a Clothworld or Joanns in that small town. Anyway, the point is that all of this is recorded with the pictures of that first quilt.
Getting Started
Making a Quilt Journal is very easy. Here's a list of easy-to-find items you will need:
BINDER or NOTEBOOK
I like to use a 2-inch, 3-ring school notebook. Cover it and personalize it if you like. I've found that using a binder or notebook is effective in keeping things organized. If your pages of a Quilt Journal are kept loose, it's easy to lose them.
PAPER
Use regular or loose-leaf notebook paper and eliminate buying a hole-puncher or you can use copier (printer) paper and make your own Quilt Journal worksheets.
What type of information should you put on your Quilt Journal worksheets? Here are some basic information items that each quilt have in common:
- Name of the quilt
- Finished quilt size
- Type of quilt
- Name(s) of pattern(s)
- Notes on pattern(s) (Where was it found? Is it an original design?)
- Date started, date the quilt top is completed, date the quilt is completed
- Type(s) of construction methods used,
- Quilt block sketches
- Theme or predominant colors used
- Types of fabric used, where they were purchased, fabric swatches
- Type of batting used
- Who/what occasion the quilt was made for
- Quilt Shows entered or awards won with this quilt
- Personal comments and thoughts
- A photograph or sketch area.
Please remember that these QuiltJournal sheets are copywrited and cannot be modified or distributed without my permission. Once you download the QuiltJournal sheets, please let me know if you have any suggestions! Enjoy!
I certainly hope this has inspired you to start keeping a QuiltJournal. I encourage you to begin one, if you haven't already, as soon as you can. I include all of the information I've discussed in this article, plus I also include any rough drafts of patterns and layouts that I may have.
If you have suggestions or comments, please e-mail me. I'd love to hear from you.
