I managed to finish something today
January 13, 2009
Quilt top number one for the first grade auction projects is done. It took me waaaaaay longer than I anticipated. I'm not sure how I am going to quilt it - I don't want stitching over the art work. I'll figure it out, I suppose. Suggestions are welcome.
And now it's time to move on to the second one. Right after I eat lunch, of course.
You go girl! How about a simple stitch-in-the-ditch approach??
Posted by: Qalballah | January 13, 2009 at 01:20 PM
go lady !
Posted by: charlotte | January 13, 2009 at 01:23 PM
Oh my! This is beautiful and I would not quilt over the art.
Because the top took you so much longer than expected and because you do not want to take anything away from the art work; I think the best thing may be to stich all the straight lines. Just outline each and every peice of fabric.
What a priceless treasure some blessed person will receive.
Enjoy lunch!
Posted by: Lisa | January 13, 2009 at 01:28 PM
what a treasure you're creating!
Posted by: kristyn | January 13, 2009 at 01:42 PM
It's just wonderful! I echo the stitch in the ditch suggestions--even if you don't quilt over the drawings, additional quilt lines would distract, imo.
Posted by: Meg Evans | January 13, 2009 at 01:44 PM
Oh Erin! That's FANTASTIC!!! I can't WAIT to see what the other one is going to look like!
Posted by: caroline | January 13, 2009 at 02:05 PM
If it were me I would make my quilting lines in the middle of the printed border fabric on each piece of art, then in the middle of each of the linen (?) pieces around the border piece. So each art piece would have two squares of stitching around it to mimic the two squares of fabric around it.
Posted by: Sarah | January 13, 2009 at 02:18 PM
You are so good! I am totally procrastinating my class project! We made summer pics(8x8) since the theme is "summer at the shores." I am doing borders for each square(16x16 finished)and quilt with stitch in the ditch.At least that is my plan...
Posted by: Cindy | January 13, 2009 at 02:19 PM
You could go old-school and just stitch in the ditch. What a fun quilt.a
Posted by: amy h | January 13, 2009 at 02:27 PM
I was just coming here to suggest "quilting in the ditch" but see I've been beat to it! It looks wonderful!
Posted by: Sadie | January 13, 2009 at 02:31 PM
Oh that is awesome! I just finished a quilt too and posted it on my blog today.
Posted by: Gretchen Skovron | January 13, 2009 at 02:34 PM
Oh my goodness, that is wonderful! I'd probably quilt it in the middle of the borders and sashing, like Sarah mentioned. Since I can't stipple, that's how I've done my quilting. Just follow the lines.
Posted by: beki | January 13, 2009 at 02:37 PM
it looks great!
Posted by: Casey | January 13, 2009 at 02:51 PM
if your desire is to do as much continuous stitching as possible (my preference, always) then I'd follow the stitch in the ditch advice - going all the way from one end to the other, across the block and then back down, across the next block, etc. Then reverse going the other way so that when you look at the back, it's a grid. Same concept as Kathy Mack's pencil roll, but going both from bottom to top and from side to side. If I weren't concerned about constant thread cutting, then I'd probably outline each square somehow.
Regardless, it's beautiful.
Posted by: Sarah Jackson | January 13, 2009 at 03:41 PM
This made me happy today.
Posted by: Account Deleted | January 13, 2009 at 03:44 PM
I love the frames!
Posted by: Nadia Lewis | January 13, 2009 at 03:48 PM
So fun! :) Congrats on getting this far. I can't wait to see it all quilted!
Posted by: Kelly | January 13, 2009 at 03:54 PM
It looks great Erin! I would just quilt in straight lines in one direction, then do it again turning the quilt 90 degrees. That way you can "box" in the art, but also do it in continuous lines. Does that make sense? I think I made it sound more confusing than it is. Can't wait to see it finished!
oops, I just realized Sarah said the same thing. Anyway, that's the quickest way and it looks nice too!
Posted by: Katie | January 13, 2009 at 03:58 PM
Wow, that looks great! I would love to learn to quilt.
Posted by: Julie (Knitsational) | January 13, 2009 at 04:28 PM
my df Wendy made me something similar with my children's art work and she used fancy buttons to embellish the kids pictures with that had the double use of tying the quilt. She also stitched in the ditch.
Posted by: Tracy | January 13, 2009 at 04:59 PM
It looks great. For my grandmother's quilt (with the handprints) Amanda Jean free motion quilted arond the handprints.
Posted by: Mama Urchin | January 13, 2009 at 05:15 PM
what a great quilt!
Posted by: Myra | January 13, 2009 at 05:38 PM
I think it would look cute with a cursive alphabet in the sashing.
Posted by: Nancy | January 13, 2009 at 06:42 PM
oh erin, this is so beautiful. I'm sure this is a big ticket item at the school auction. Congrats. They must absolutely love you.
Posted by: kat \ Taylor Made designs | January 13, 2009 at 07:16 PM
I love this so much! Good luck with the quilting (and the other one, too)!
Posted by: Angela | January 13, 2009 at 07:20 PM
I love the kid's art work on the quilt. I bet it will bring in a mint.
Posted by: Liz | January 13, 2009 at 07:22 PM
yeah. what they said. ( you know i have no idea)
that is so sweet. i would SO bid on it.
Posted by: leslie | January 13, 2009 at 07:24 PM
It is lovely! I'm in the same boat with not knowing how to quilt a project. I wish I had some good suggestions but I don't. I'm sure you will come up with something fantastic.
Posted by: cami | January 13, 2009 at 07:26 PM
Erin,
This is beautiful. i am no expert, but i think quilting over the straight lines might work.
I love the border.
Posted by: kaite | January 13, 2009 at 07:29 PM
How cute is that!? This will be a very popular item.
Posted by: Leslie | January 13, 2009 at 08:08 PM
This is just the greatest!
Posted by: SpiderWomanKnits | January 13, 2009 at 08:12 PM
oh, i predict a bidding frenzy! absolutley darling.
Posted by: suzanne | January 13, 2009 at 09:22 PM
That is awesome! I think quilts always do well in auctions and are so cherished!
Posted by: tiennie | January 13, 2009 at 11:08 PM
It's delish, like all your other projects. Details of the auction? Outsiders allowed to bid?
Posted by: carol | January 14, 2009 at 07:12 AM
You are such an inspiration! Thanks for sharing the fun...again!
Posted by: Linda | January 14, 2009 at 07:18 AM
I did a project like that with my DD's class many many moons ago. How about a meandering stitch all over but the artwork...The kids will love it!
Posted by: Jane Weston | January 14, 2009 at 07:23 AM
erin - this is so great! looooooove the border. well done.
xoxo
Posted by: meg | January 14, 2009 at 08:03 AM
great quilt! another idea would be with so many straight lines do some scrolls in the frames of the blocks, then it won't be so...(straight) it will have more interest. I used to work in a quilt shop and my friend always said when you have so many straight lines it looks better quilted with curves and when you have curves do straight.
Posted by: Joan | January 14, 2009 at 08:05 AM
yay hooray, and man it's cute! I love the border!
Posted by: Tracy | January 14, 2009 at 08:51 AM
Wow - looks great already! I'm not a quilter, so can give no advice nor opinion on how to finish it up, but as a parent (and consumer) I know that it will go fast and high at the auction whatever you decide to do. Please move to my neighbourhoood in Canada so that we can have one of your quilts at my boys' school auction. It's a crazy -30 CELSIUS here today and I need a good quilt to keep me warm!
Posted by: marieke | January 14, 2009 at 09:25 AM
You HAVE been busy! It looks very good. I don't know anything about quilting, but I'm sure you could quilt around each section of artwork and perhaps hand sew down (tack down) only specific areas within each drawing...of course that would take even MORE time...
Posted by: Ellen | January 14, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Beautiful :)
Posted by: Felicia | January 14, 2009 at 12:41 PM
it's lovely! i can't believe that you are making 2 auction quilts!!!
Posted by: amandajean | January 14, 2009 at 12:58 PM
It's so cute. We need to get coffee sometime soon. Hope you are staying warm.
Posted by: katie r | January 14, 2009 at 10:05 PM
I love these these types of quilts! So beautiful. They just make me smile.
I've done two similar projects. I found that we had to do stitching on the pictures themselves otherwise the art was just poofy and lost their definition.
The first quilt I did on my machine. They were portraits and I free-motioned around the heads and the shoulders. It gave great definition to the pictures without taking anything away. (Mr. E's quilt here on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80233243@N00/sets/72157594215556446/ )
The quilts I pieced for last year's auction were done by a long arm diva. She did some similar type of outlining but also added in thematic swirls like waves in pictures of the ocean, etc. Pretty amazing. (those quilts are on a flickr set here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80233243@N00/sets/72157604112029438/ )
Have fun and hope you raise lots of money!
Posted by: Kathy | January 14, 2009 at 10:10 PM
It's so cute!
Posted by: anina | January 15, 2009 at 09:31 AM
Erin this looks wonderful!
Posted by: Chara Michele | January 15, 2009 at 04:34 PM
it's so awesome erin! they are lucky to have you. my daughter's school does a similar quilt every year for their auction, but the in between fabric is usually a busy and kid friendly print... it's cute, but the childrens artwork is much more prominent on yours. i'm curious what the art quilts raise at your school? they are pretty coveted here and generally bring in about $800. we don't let this go to the live auction though because we don't want to exclude people who don't have that kind of money from a having a chance at their child's work... the art quilt is auctioned by raffle tickets... $10 or 3/$20... it raises more money this way and evens the playing field a bit. win win!! :)
i can't wait to see the second one!
Posted by: heather | January 15, 2009 at 06:15 PM
Erin, SO BEAUTIFUL! Can I ask, did the kids use permanent markers on muslin? Did you prepare the muslin in anyway for the kids to draw their creations? THANKS!Pearl
Posted by: Pearl Hadden | January 16, 2009 at 09:59 AM
It looks great! I just finished a quilt where I didn't want to quilt over the middle picture squares. I just did stipling around them and they stand out really nicely.
Posted by: Marissa | January 16, 2009 at 11:06 AM