Day Seven of the Twelve Days of Christmas in July!

 

Hi, all!

Here we are, on the downslope of this year's 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop!  Hopefully we can enjoy the downhill rush to the finish, pausing along the way to find more Christmas inspiration.  Today I've taken a little trip down memory lane to share a family tradition with you, and we'll also receive the instructions for two more blocks for the quilt or wall hanging. Let's get started!

*&*&*&*&*&*&*

As many of you may already know, we have a tradition in my family that started many years ago, when Lilli, my eldest granddaughter, was very little.  One of my first quilts was made for her, and I gave it to her for Christmas just after her second birthday.  The next year, I was making a quilt for a little girl with leukemia, and Lilli, my constant companion, loved the Dr. Seuss fabric.  She petted that quilt and constantly asked about who it was for. She asked about that quilt even after I sent it off to its new owner, and so I decided to order more fabric and make her one too!

I gave her the quilt for Christmas, along with a doll quilt from the same fabrics for the doll bed my husband made her that year, and thought that would be the end of it.  But then Christmas starts coming around again, and Lilli, always an articulate child, even at three, started listing off all the things she wanted Papa (my husband) to get her for Christmas.  I asked her if she didn't think that was quite a lot of things, and she looked at me and said, "But Nana, all I want from you is a quilt!"  And thus a tradition was born.

Keep in mind at that point I only had one grandchild.  This made making a quilt a year a pretty simple prospect!  Then along came Emmy, and I added another quilt for each of them each Christmas.

Emmy's first annual quilt

At this point, my daughter isn't too concerned.  They only have a few quilts in their house!  A few years later, they adopted Nathanael, and their quilt load was increased by three each year.....

Nathanael's first annual quilt

But finally at some point my daughter started getting concerned, realizing that by the time they all graduated, there would be upwards of fifty quilts at their house!  To calm her nerves, we gave each of the children a storage cabinet one year so they could put their own quilts away in their rooms, and last year I gave them vacuum storage bags so they could store some under their beds!  

Needless to say, though, I'm not going to stop the tradition.  I try to make each quilt a microcosm of things about the last year in the chid's life.  For example, one year Emmy was VERY dramatic about everything, so I made her this cute Drama Llama quilt....

We discussed it thoroughly, and each llama has a name and a distinct personality!  Nathanael loves penguins, and one year I made this fun quilt for him....

And Lilli has cut through a wide swath of colors, themes and styles, but this is my favorite, I think - one year she requested a dolphin quilt with lots of blue...

One of the special things that I add to each quilt is a label that tells a little bit about the past year and how I see them growing up.  It always begins with "The year you turned (age)...".  

I love to think of their children using these quilts someday and reading about what their parents were like when they were children!  They have been comforters when they were sick, playmats or tents when they were cooped up inside, snugglies on the sofa while watching tv or playing video games - and they should continue that wonderful existence for years to come!

This year I already have plans for all three - Lilli will be getting a chocolate chip cookie quilt, Nathanael a Pokemon quilt, and Emmy, my little artist, is already working on drawings that I will copy onto fabric and put into her quilt.

Do you have any special family traditions that go on year after year?

*&*&*&*&*&*&*

First of all, a note - if you happened to read yesterday's blogpost very early in the day, you may have noticed that although I promised two blocks, I only put the instructions for one.  (Oops!)  I've fixed that and so if you missed the instructions for Block C, hop back one day and catch up!

And now it's time to work on the next two blocks for the center of the quilt or wall hanging - Blocks D and E!  These two blocks are identical, so construction should go pretty quickly.

For these two blocks you will need the following pieces:

        10 3.5” sq. white

8 3.5” sq. red/white 9-patch blocks

Lay out the pieces on your work table in stacks of two, as shown below. 

Assemble two nine-patch blocks.  These finished blocks will go to the right and upper left of the top block of the Christmas tree.  You can rotate them as needed to place the white block corner towards the center of the design.

And just like that, you're done for today!  If you are still working on the small 9-patch blocks, hopefully you have some catch-up time now.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*

I hope you'll be back tomorrow, when I will be sharing another kid-friendly craft - I know it is because my grands had a ball with it!  It's quick, easy, down-time friendly, and may help you use up some stray (and possibly overflowing) craft items you have stashed away!  We'll also be assembling the next two blocks for our quilt.

Can't wait to see you then!

Sarah