I am making “Biography Quilts” for my girls. These quilts will tell the story of each of my girls, in a subtle way. To someone not in the know, the quilt will look like any other sampler quilt. But, there will be meaning behind every design and pattern in it.
I made up the name term Biography Quilt. There may already be a name for this type of quilt. I am sure someone has done something like this before.
Each girl will receive her quilt after graduating from high school. I envision each taking their quilt with them to college and then napping under it and cuddling with it, all while studying of course.
Each year of their lives will be documented with a quilt block. I say “each year,” but really it’s each stage of their lives. Because of timing of my girls’ birthdays, there’s not a clean way to jump from toddlerhood to preschool, so the toddlerhood block spans about 1½ years for my girls (12 months until ~2½). Once my girls reach school age, I am documenting their lives by grade instead of by year. There will be 18 blocks spanning birth unitl 12th grade.
Since 18 blocks do not make an even quilt layout, I am adding two additional blocks. One will represent their past (family history?) and the other will represent their future (college, plans, aspirations). I am still deciding how to handle these two extra blocks. I may change how I do them later if I think of a better solution. The blocks are 12″ finished. After adding in the sashing and border, the quilts should finish around 62″ x 76″.
Even though these quilts will not be finished for another 13 – 17 years, I am already planning the binding and backing (it is not unusual for me to plan my backing and binding at the beginning). For the backing I need four yards and for the binding need about a half yard. I am eyeing some of the Flea Market Fancy re-prints for all three quilts’ backing and binding. The prints and colors of FMF are timeless so for me they are a great way to go.
At this point, I have not made a single block, but hope to start in the new year. I am ready to start making blocks for these quilts; to get current with where each of my girls are in their lives. The blocks and most fabrics are planned out, I just need to get to sewing!
If you want to see what I have planned for each, you can check out the one working link below.
- Mallory’s Biography Quilt plan
- Chelsea’s Biography Quilt plan (need to create the page/graphics)
- Tessa’s Biography Quilt plan (need to create the page/graphics)
