The Giant OH NO!

Crayon Quilt Revised Finished

Yesterday I received a call from my daughter's teacher.  It started with "The Quilt is lovely,
 but there was a slight edge to her voice and I should have guessed something was wrong.

I missed a child!  How does that even happen?  I was so careful!  I had all the strips folded together in a bag I tied off and I laid everything out on the sewing table in the way it looked best and then sewed it together.  I've checked through the bag of strips that no one picked and everything, but no sign of the missing strip.  

Hand Stitched Spelling Mini Quilt Detail

So I spent the entire rest of the day creating this.  It is a purple piece of paper, the color was selected by the student, and this week's spelling words hand stitched on letter by letter into a mini quilt, complete with a 10/10 and the word Excellent on the paper.  I had the mini quilt nearly done when my daughter came off the bus with my vagrant quilt, and I appliqued the little mini quilt on.  Then I folded it up and off it went back to school today.

I feel so bad.  I tried to be so careful.  We all make mistakes but I never wanted to miss someone.  I was so concerned about making sure everyone's spellings were correct...  In retrospect I should have requested a typed class list "just to be sure" but as the teacher wrote the names on the papers they were all easy to read and I didn't see the need.  I sure hope he likes his addition to the quilt.

Teacher's Crayon Quilt Done!

Crayon Quilt Finished Front

I just finished up the Great American Teach In Crayon Quilt that I made.  I call it Art from the Heart and I will send it to school on Monday for my daughter to give to the teacher.  I really struggled with hand making the label this time as I just didn't feel up to all that stitching, so when a friend suggested I just write the label, I considered it and knew it would get the quilt done.  Which is something I really needed to do so against my own grain I just did it and called it done.

Crayon Quilt On Reverse

The quilting is glitter stitched with each student's name in Superior's Metallic thread, the one they had on sale for $1.50 a spool.  They still have some if you'd like to pick up a spool or 20.  Look under their "Try Me Specials".  I found that when I followed their directions everything worked nicely.  Rick rack runs in two solid strips at the top and bottom which actually helped to bisect the quilt to make the pre-marking easier to gauge.  I also quilted each crayon in the ditch so it appears to pop unto itself.  Then I filled the remaining areas of each crayon with thread matched to each strip in loops and stars to resemble doodling.

The Students names were something I really wanted to make sure were right.  So I left the tags that had each child's name on it from when they selected their strip during the Teach-In, and I kept those tags on until I had completely finished all of the quilting on that strip.  I double, triple, and even quadruple checked and if that's a lot just think of how the child would have felt had I messed up their name?

Crayon Quilt Name and Pencil Detail

The pencil is a point of pride for me and is in the teacher's selected colors.  I did not applique this independently and instead worked with many pins as I quilted it on.  Trust me I was poked enough times to make me question my sanity.  At the tip of the pencil and at the eraser, the pencil is independent and loose from the quilt creating a bit of a 3-D effect. Now if you look you'll see a bit of blue thread , How did that bit of thread end up on that final name?

The Quilt is topped with matching Prairie Points and loops behind them for hanging on the wall.  For some reason it seems  to me that it will be easier for a teacher to hang loops vs. a sleeve. The sides are traditionally bound which created a challenge at the two upper corners but I like the result and would make the same choice if I had it to do again.

This quilt is quilted rather densely so it took me more than my usual time to quilt it.  Also I found the metallic thread to be nearly impossible to "snap" into my self threading needles, so instead I had to work in good light and thread it into the eye myself when tucking the threads ends in.  Good thing it's a single thread instead of a woven one.

Sure hope the class likes it.

Crayon Quilt: Name Quilting

Another good title for this post is "The Sweet Spot", you know when you're doing something and all of the sudden everything clicks into place and things start going really great?  That was exactly what happened to me this morning with the quilting on the Crayon Quilt.  WowWee!  When I hit that spot I could see it in the way the thread was sewing.  This is metallic thread and all I've ever heard is bad things about metallics so of course you know how much zest I approached this quilting with.  Yet after the first couple of names I found the right way to thread my machine wrong in order to allow minimum tension without having to little tension and to allow the thread to spool off the spool form the side as directed by the manufacturer.  Sure enough I can see a visible difference in the names I quilted after I hit the sweet spot and before.  Now all the names are done except for those first two or three that I will requilt.

Now I just need to settle on how I will quilt the rest of the crayons...  Hope you've found your sweet spot today!

Beginning Quilting on Crayon Quilt

I told myself when I started working on this quilt that I needed to take many photographs.  But the best laid plans of a quilter will often find you with your lap blouse and even hair full of bits of thread.  Currently I have stitched in the ditch of all of the crayons using the color I plan to quilt that strip with.  I have also handwritten the names of each of the children on their selected crayon strips.  My next step will be to quilt over the names with glitter thread.  I've never worked with such a fussy thread before so I've been planning every last detail.

Of course I didn't plan that we would still be full swing in the process of putting up our Christmas items.  So far we have four days invested.  We're decorated outside with lights, inside the tree is up and decorated, and the stockings are hung but no trace of the holidays can be found in terms of garland nor are the other rooms in the house decorated yet.  I haven't even started on my Christmas cards yet.  What bearing does this have on quilting?  Normally nothing except the boxes are piled up in front of my newly shortened, for the holidays, quilt frame so I can't get at it until some of the boxes...  Yes, I knew you'd get it.

What have you been up to lately?  I've missed you what with all this mess clutter, not to mention holiday deadlines.

Crayon Quilt Piecing in Progress

I've been working on sewing the strips together for the Teacher's Crayon Quilt.  These are strips that the children selected as being their favorites when I went to the Great American Teach In the other day.

 So far I have the strips sewn and pressed.  All of the prairie points are made for the crayon tips and I've started working on the teacher's pencil.  So far I really like the pencil.  I went with a different pink than the one I'd planned as this one matched a bit better and I knew when I turned the tube I'd made the right choice.  Doesn't that pink scream eraser?

For the quilting I'm going to be quilting the students names onto their strips (hence all those bits of paper at the top of the flimsy).  Currently I'm planning to find the center and mark each strip with my Sewline Pencil and then write in the name with the pencil before quilting it. I am considering using gold glitter thread for quilting the students names.  I've never quilted with glitter thread before, but I think it would unite the crayon colors nicely so it's worth the try.

I don't think I will be working on this much more until after Thanksgiving.  DD was firm well over a month ago that we always host Thanksgiving so hence we will again this year.  What are your plans for Thanksgiving?  I think perhaps the best thing would be to simply sit at the sewing machine and give thanks for finding this passion of quilting in which to bury myself in.  ;-)

Art From the Heart

Teach In Quilt Strip Layout

Today at the Great American Teach-In, I attempted to show the first grade students in my daughters class, that art is made with our hands, mind, eyes, and hearts.  To take that one step further is to say that because art comes from your heart it is pure and good no matter what it looks like nor what others might think of it.  I think I lost them a little on that point but guess what?  As I'm making a quilt from the strips the children picked I get to reinforce that point when I make the quilt label.

Teach-In Thanks

I am now I'm the proud owner of a Certificate of Appreciation as well as a school mug.  One of these days I'll hang all these letters and so forth up in the sewing room so that I can marvel at them.  The mug was a surprise as I truly didn't expect anything.  I met a fellow quilter while at the school, and we all know it's nice to meet someone that thinks like we do in our travels.  I also met a mom who had met my daughter, currently her daughter is in DD's class last year, believe it or not she proceeded to tell me about my own DD without knowing I'm DD's mom.  How about that.

I am really looking forward to getting started on this quilt.  As a strip quilt I doubt it will take long and it is sure to be fun so I started laying out the children's fabric strips right away.  I wasn't sure about the layout of the fabric, so of fussing over it to long, instead I went to my leftovers pile and looked for a strip that matched what the teacher told me her favorite color is.  She said blues to greens.  Thereby I picked the strip that runs across the bottom of the upper picture to make the applique teacher's pencil and I think that helped pull the colors together.   I think the appliqued pencil will be thicker than that as I plan to make a tube and then applique it on that way running at an angle over the bottom right corner of the quilt.  No one picked grey so that will be good for making the metal that holds a pencil on and I have a pretty pink polka dotted fabric for the eraser.  I'm not sure about a wood color for the sharpened part but I should be able to come up with something and the lead point should be okay too.

My Visitor Before the Teach-In

The Great America Teach-In is tomorrow and I think I'm ready.  This is how I envision the strips to come together.  The top will be prairie point binding to give the crayons their points.  I will be adding a fabric to the bottom of the quilt of a currently unknown color and appliqueing a pencil in the teacher's favorite color with her name and the class information on it.  It is sure to be a fun time.  The quilting is my favorite part of this quilt as I will be quilting each child's name onto their selected strip so instead of a traditional crayon label it will be the child's name stitched onto the fabric they liked best tomorrow.

This morning while waiting for the bus to come I spotted a visitor on my neighbor's fence.  I think it was going after a snake the way it danced around on the ground.  This hawk stayed long enough for all of the children at the bus stop to see it and better yet long enough for me to run inside after the bus departed to take these pictures for you.  This is a fully mature red shouldered hawk and likely a year round resident here.  Still it is amazing to see such a powerful hunter so close up.  I'm so glad cameras have zoom!

The Great American Teach In Fabric Strips

Look at this wonderful rainbow of fabrics.  Aren’t these strips amazing?  As I mentioned the other day my friend Vicki sent me fabrics from her stash for the Great American Teach-In which is coming up this November; between her package, my stash, and a bit of shopping I came up with these 44 beautiful strips.  I think that’s a nice number for 20 children to pick their favorite from what about you?  My goal is to sew the strips the children select as representing themselves together and make a crayon quilt. Then I will quilt each child’s name onto their strip much like a Crayon label.   

So now I ask you, do you see any colors that are missing?  I’m showing you the fabrics two ways so you can see for yourself.  Does anything stand out in your mind as a color that isn’t visible as a choice?  I would hate to think of a child looking at the range of fabrics and not finding a particular color that came into their mind when I say art.

Now mind you that black fabric that is by the fabrics will be joining the strips too, but it’s an extra wide fabric and I want to wait to cut the strip until after I take what I need from the yardage for the Christmas Quilt-a-long tomorrow.