My school's annual auction was Saturday night. And this is my fourth time to enter a quilt in the auction, created by the children in my After School classroom. Here are the other ones: year 1, year 2, and year 3.
This is similar to years past, with a few changes. As in years previously, I ironed fusible webbing on to the back of solid Kona cotton in rainbow colors and cut it into different shapes. Each child was given a white square of fabric, and was allowed to decorate that square with the shapes. I ironed the square to permanently adhere the pieces, pieced the squares together with 1 inch sashing, added a border, and quilted it up.
One different thing we did this year was invite the children to help piece the quilt. I borrowed a sewing machine from the school, and invited the children one at a time to push down the pedal to make the sewing machine run. I fed the fabric through the machine, but the children definitely were participating. It was a challenge to make sure I was feeding it through correctly when someone else was running the machine! The children LOVED it, and were eager day after day to help with the work. It was great for me, because the majority of the sewing was done at school instead of at my house!
I did the quilting at home, and I added in some extra quilting this year. In addition to the regular stabilizing quilting in a grid around the blocks, I also did free motion quilting in each square. Even though the fusible webbing is supposed to be permanent, I still worry about the pieces coming loose. So I made sure the free motion quilting caught each colorful shape, and tried to catch each one in a few places. It added about 3 hours to my work time, but I'm happy to have that peace of mind that all is secure.
Each quilt block is signed by its creator, and it's fun to see how the child's personailty shines through. Some are so busy and colorful! And others are quite minimalist. Alex's mother looked at his block (sporting a single shape), and said, "Oh, you're just like your father!"
The school administration was very excited about the quilt, and even had me pose with it to e-mail to all of the parents on Friday. I was happy that I was also wearing a handmade dress that day.
In the end, the quilt didn't sell for as much this year as it has in the past two years. But it sold for $600, which is very good, and I'm so happy with the whole process.
I wore a new handmade dress to the auction, and got loads of compliments on it. I will have to get some photos of it so I can show it to you!
such a lovely project, K!
Posted by: cauchy09 | April 22, 2012 at 10:30 PM
It is beautiful, and Robert has really enjoyed participating in this project each year. He really wants me to get a sewing machine now! Thank you for all of your great work with him.
Posted by: Trisha | April 23, 2012 at 12:43 PM
That is an awesome quilt and such a great idea for the kids' contribution! Congrats on a beautiful quilt!
Posted by: Ivete | April 24, 2012 at 09:12 AM
Great project! Glad it did well at auction.
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