Redesigning my Calendar Quilt

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Aged Care where my hubby has been a resident for the last 4½ years, asked me to make perpetual calendars for two of their Dining Rooms. For the first calendar I made my original Garden Dreams Pattern. I gave it just a few slight adjustments but it was basically the same as the original design and everyone loves it.

What was I going to make for the second calendar? I don't know whether you are like me, but I really dislike making the same thing twice!  There was no way I was going to make another Garden Dreams Calendar, having just spent three months making the first one!

Four years ago, I designed a lovely perpetual calendar wall quilt, called Days of Delight, and it was offered as a Block of the Month program in 2022. It is labour intensive, but spread over 12 months made it possible and 'doable'. 

There were lots of things to love in the original version of the Days of Delight project, eg the cute little Days of the Week mini-quilts. Since I hadn't made those for four years, and with totally different fabric bringing about enough difference, I was happy to launch into applique and embroidery to create them. I just changed one mini-quilt to something a little less complicated than the original. 

Then there were the sweet little hexagons. They are flipped so that the sides are parallel. I decided that they could stay also. Who doesn't love a hexagon???

The 12 sweet little Months of the Year mini-quilts also got the nod, but I have made them smaller and removed the extra embroidery elements in the new design.

They were the easy decisions to make! While I liked the original version of the background, there was something about the solid fabrics that I used that didn't give me that exuberant feeling of just loving every bit of the design!

Actually, I could probably say that about almost every quilt where I have featured solids! My style just doesn't lend itself to using them! Give me tone-on-tone or busy little fabrics any day!

So a total revamp of the actual background was the answer! For the main feature, I used one of my quaint cottages, with a lovely Suffolk Puff Garden.

A wheelbarrow, a tree and a birdhouse were added, and it was all starting to really come together.

It just needed some Prairie Points to finish off the edge and Blossom Cottage is complete!

Of course, you have to have somewhere to store all those mini-quilts and hexagons, so a fabric box was the answer.

 

I have removed Days of Delight from sale now, but Blossom Cottage pattern is available for purchase in its place. You can find it on my Wall Quilts and Hanging page here.

Now I'm just waiting for the quilt hanger to arrive and Blossom Cottage Calendar should be soon hanging in the dining room. I am hoping the residents love it as much as I do!  

Happy stitching!

Val