Kid quilts

While the only quilt I've personally finished lately was my Scrappy Spirals, I've been working with kids quite a bit this summer with their own quilts.  This week, I taught a group of 5 kids at Summer FAIR (a young artist's camp) how to make a quilt from t-shirts.  We only had 4.5 hours total, and none of them had ever used a sewing machine, so I'm quite impressed with what they were able to accomplish.  This quilt top is made entirely from extra Summer FAIR camp t-shirts from previous years.  It measures about 47" square.  I'm going to sandwich it and quilt it up for them and it will become part of the camp's display and promotional materials.

collaborative kid quilt from t-shirts

In June, I had 6 kids here for 4 hours a day for a week to work on their own faux cathedral window quilts from denim and fabric scraps.  I love what they did with them - makes me want to make another one for myself! Somehow I didn't manage to get photos of them all before they left, though.

My sample quilt

kid quilt - 16 fabrics used 4 times each

kid quilt - All black and white prints

kid quilt - She had to leave a day early so her quilt is a bit smaller, but still plenty big enough.

But first, I've got two more baby quilts to finish for this fall.  Back to the sewing machine!

Sweatshop!

The blocks keep pouring in!  Thank goodness for time away from work for Thanksgiving so I can get down in my sewing room and SEW!  I'm about to turn that room into a SWEATSHOP, with some time set aside to EAT!  My brother is hosting this year, so that takes a huge weight off my shoulders.  Plus, I just finished a major project at work, so that is a relief, too.  I've been working my tail off lately, getting only 4 and 5 hours of sleep most nights - I can't survive like that for long!

So here's what came on Monday:

95 quilt blocks (including 42 from 1 person!) - thanks, Sue S, Teri J, Barbara R, Karen W, Susan R, Gloria B, and Judy C! 

And here's today's mail:

3 blocks from Michele in Ontario - thanks, Michele!

a cheater cloth backing from Lynda in Nevada - so cool!

And a batting and some yardage from Lynda, too - thanks, Lynda! 

Monday was also the third meeting of my quilting class at the elementary school.  Since they had deconstructed lots of jeans at our first meeting, I cut the denim down to 7.5" squares, and they started sewing them together, rag quilt style with some up-cycled linens on the back.

only 2 rows of 5 are sewn together so far with one more set of five ready to be added 

We also started to work on our county fair entry quilt.  It is to be a combination of colored (with crayons) and embroidered blocks, so they started with some embroidered blocks, using a simple backstitch, to spell out "CENTRAL ELEMENTARY, READY TO QUILT".  Some of them took right to it and completed or nearly completed their letters.

Some of the completed or nearly completed letters - we used red, blue and green variegated #8 perle cotton 

Close up of one of the letters - bigger stitches than I suggested, but for these kids' first time, I think they did great! 

Others really struggled, and I have some knotted messes to untangle before next time, but all in all, it was probably our best class yet.  Right at dismissal, one of the girls came up and hugged me and said, "I love you!"  My heart swelled so much it hurt!

OK, here I go, less typing, more sewing!  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone!

READY to quilt!

During the Mountain Days Festival earlier this month, I was approached about teaching a workshop to kids through an after school enrichment program at a local elementary school.  Well, I'm doing it!  The school received a 3-year READY grant (I don't know what the acronym stands for), and there will be workshops offered to the kids each quarter.  For now, I'm just starting with this marking period - we'll see how it fits into my schedule and how well the kids and I like working together.  I'll be doing 2 workshops per day, twice per week, one with grades K-2 and one with grades 3-5.  My workshop is called READY TO QUILT!

I set up a blog to be able to communicate with parents about what we are doing and so the kids can show off their work.  I made my first post today (http://centralquilts.blogspot.com), outlining workshop goals and displaying my class samples (since Hurricane Sandy canceled our Open House on Monday).  Basically, I want the kids to:

1) make at least one take home project, either a pillow or a composition book cover.  In keeping with the season, here are my class samples:

I recovered one of my couch pillows.  I drew the design freehand.  If I were doing it again, I think I'd leave out the word EEK and make the spider bigger.

I figure the kids should be able to do a backstitch, right?

For the first time, I made the pillow cover small enough that the pillow is plump, without wrinkles or empty corners

Envelope back so it can be removed

 

Donald wants this composition book cover for himself!  I told him I'd teach him how to make his own.

I don't know where I got that skulls fabric, but I love it, and have been trying to figure out what to make with it for a while now.

2) contribute to a group quilt to enter in the quilt show at the 2013 Rockbridge County Fair, along the lines of this quilt that I made with my cub scouts two years ago

The boys won 2nd place at the County Fair quilt show that year.

They traced images and then colored the blocks with crayons

3) assist in making a denim rag quilt to donate to my guild's Comfort Quilt program.  I want them to understand quilting's history as a community building activity.

The denim quilt I made for Jason earlier this year

The back of the denim quilt

 I'm so excited!!!  One of the things I'm going to do is incorporate some children's books into my workshops, probably starting each session with a reading.  I know I'm going to use the following books, but if you have suggestions for others I can use, please let me know.  Since there are 8 weeks, I'd love to have 8 books to share.

Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt - to talk about how quilting is not just for girls, about entering quilts in fairs and how working together often allows us to make something even better than if we work separately

Reuben and the Quilt - another quilt that shows boys quilting and introduces the idea of giving a quilt to comfort someone else

The Quiltmaker's Gift - to talk about how it is better to give than to receive (and because the illustrations in that book are AWESOME!)

The Patchwork Quilt - showing how quilting is an intergenerational and a multicultural activity

The Keeping Quilt - I've not read this, but the READY coordinator really likes it and wants me to use it

Have any of you or do any of you currently teach quiltmaking to kids?  If so, do you have any suggestions for me?

Good Fortune!

My Good Fortune came from winning Linda's giveaway over at Stray Stitches.  Isn't it lovely?  Thanks, Linda and Fat Quarter Shop!

Mr. Random Number Generator determined that commenter #21 should get some good fortune, too.

robin said...

How about Backside 180? Ask your son if he likes it.

Thanks for playing along, Robin.  Some neutrals will be on their way to you once I get your mailing address.

And my son's good fortune was that I met my goal of finishing the piecing of his quilt today.  As I was sewing the final seams, the name came to me.  While I love Sandy Bottoms, the quilt isn't for Sandy, and it has some of my bottoms and Jason's bottoms and Donald's bottoms and even a neighbor's bottoms in it, too, so I'm going to have to save that name for another quilt.  Skate Dreams captures the essence of the quilt, but it just didn't resonate with me.  But then it hit me - HALF PIPE DREAMS.  It's a play on "pipe dreams", and the skaters among you will recognize that a half pipe is a structure used in skateboarding.  There is small one at the skatepark that my children beg me to take them to any time the sun shines.

I present to you HALF PIPE DREAMS!

The front (denim) side

The back (homespun plaid) side

Since this is a denim RAG quilt, I still have to clip the seam allowances.  I've only clipped 2 of 12 rows, and I already have a blister.  This is going to take a while.  I am giving myself permission to park in front of the TV or iPad and clip away while I watch McLeod's Daughters to my heart's content.  Once I get it clipped and washed and dried, I'll take another picture so you can see the final result.  Right now, however, my son is cuddled up under his new quilt which he was so surprised to see ("So THAT'S what you've been doing with all those jeans!") and for which I received multiple hugs and a declaration that he loves it and he is going to use it for the rest of his life.

Can you imagine my smile right now?

Forever in Blue Jeans (...giveaway...)

I've been wanting to make a denim quilt for years, so I've been slowly saving up our worn out jeans to cut and upcycle.  However, with 2 little boys, while they go through LOTS of jeans, their pants are LITTLE!  Since I was envisioning a rag quilt with 1/2" seams, I need rather large blocks of denim to cut out.

Then, last week, a co-worked gifted me a whole bag of worn out jeans from her husband.  I was so excited that I got started right away this weekend.  I dismantled jeans at my son's basketball game on Saturday (and got some strange looks for it, I might add).  I dismantled jeans while watching shows on Netflix.  I dismantled jeans while singing along with my favorite country music.  I'm surprised I can type today, as my right hand has been working overtime with those scissors!

This is about 1/2 of the cutting I have done.  I still have about 6 pairs of jeans to go.

I am backing the quilt with plaids.  I am making it for my oldest son who fancies himself a skateboarder, and who tells me that old ripped blue jeans and unbuttoned plaid shirts with t-shirts underneath are the unofficial uniform for skateboarders.  This quilt will mirror that "uniform."  I'm thinking of calling it "Skate Dreams."  However, since most of the denim is coming from the pants of my co-worker's husband, whose name is Sandy, I am also playing with the idea of calling it "Sandy Bottoms."

How about a quick giveaway?  Leave a comment with 2 things:  which name do you prefer for the quilt (Skate Dreams, Sandy Bottoms or come up with your own name if you have a creative brainstorm), and tell me which of the following you'd like to add to your stash - juvenile novelty fabric, neutrals, or stripes.  I'll pick a random winner on Friday, February 3 (my goal date for having the top completely pieced), and I'll send the winner 3 Fat Quarters from my stash of whichever type of fabric they said they wanted more of (novelty, neutrals or stripes).  My stash has outgrown my space for it, so it must be time to share.

I don't have a picture of the quilt yet, but how about a photo of what I've been doing with those odd bits left over from cutting that aren't big enough for a rag quilt - denim-backed bookmarks!

Denim and fabric fused together, sewn around the edges and trimmed with pinking shears.

I gave one to my co-worker already, made from her husband's jeans and with pig fabric on front (pigs are her favorite animal).  I've also pulled out some red bandanna fabric - wouldn't that be cool on the other side of the denim bookmark?