JANUARY BLOCK OF THE MONTH.

Hello everyone.

Now all the festivities of Christmas and the New Year are behind us, it is pretty much “back to normal” for us all.

I haven’t been sewing over Christmas, as it has been so busy, but now have dusted off the sewing machine, and my mind is buzzing with ideas for quilts!

After a lot of thought, I have decided to make another calendar quilt.

This was one of the earliest quilts I made, and looking back on it, I can see a number of things that I am not happy with. (You can see the quilt on my Calendar quilt page).

 

I decided to set myself the challenge of using basic nine patch blocks with each individual square  cut to 2 ½ inches (like in the Farmers Wife Quilts), but using 4 blocks to make a finished 12” block, giving each nine patch block a quarter rotation.

Therefore each "month" consists of 36 squares.

 

What I thought I would share with you is not only the block each month, but also ideas that you can use to make your own quilt. I know a lot of my readers live outside the UK, so apologies for basing it mainly on UK customs etc. You can always adapt any ideas with traditions in your countries.

 

 

So here is the block this month:

                                      JANUARY!

January is the start of the New Year, named after the Roman God Janus (the doorkeeper), who is often represented with two faces because he was acquainted with both the past and the future.

 

FESTIVALS.

New Year’s Day.

Twelfth Night (The twelfth day after Christmas is the 6^th of January: The Feast of Epiphany. This is the day the three kings went to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus.)

Burns Night, traditionally celebrated in Scotland.

IDEAS:

Zodiac sign is Capricorn (Dec 22 – Jan 20) & Aquarius (Jan 21 – Feb 18)

Birthstone: Garnet.

                                     Snowdrops and Winter Aconites start to appear.

 

Here in England the weather is always cold, frosty, with snow and rain as well. Not a cheery month at all!

 

With this in mind, the block uses cold frosty colours of blues & greys, with crackle or glittery fabric to symbolise the frost.

 

You could of course use different quilt blocks, instead of the 9 patch version.

Ideas include: Winter Star, Snowflake, Kings Crown, Star of Magi, to name a few.

 

I hope you enjoyed this blog. I am already working on Februarys block!

 

To finish, I had to include this poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894).

 

January cold desolate;
February all dripping wet;
March wind ranges;
April changes;
Birds sing in tune
To flowers of May,
And sunny June
Brings longest day;
In scorched July
The storm-clouds fly
Lightning torn;
August bears corn,
September fruit;
In rough October
Earth must disrobe her;
Stars fall and shoot
In keen November;
And night is long
And cold is strong
In bleak December.

 

Enjoy the rest of the month, and see you in February!