The Sky's the Limit: A Call For Scraps!

Remember my last post about volunteering at my son's school in the art classroom? Well, one thing led to another, or in this case, an apron led to a quilt. I love how enthusiastic the teacher is and her passion for teaching really shows. We got to talking and first she asked me if I'd be willing to be a guest speaker at their annual "teach-in." It's kind of like a show and tell that members of the community do to teach the students about different careers, hobbies, skills, etc. Of course, I thought it was a great idea to bring in some quilts, some fabric, and maybe even do a demo of some free motion quilting.

That's where we got sidetracked. I guess it's a tradition for the exiting 5th graders to give the school a legacy gift of some sort.  Since this is a brand new school, this group of 5th graders will be the very first to graduate to middle school. And what better gift than a large wall hanging for the school that has their motto and school colors on it:

We'll have the rest of the year to make this quilt. I still need to figure out the basic lesson plans but we'll start with sewing the charm squares together in the center. There are 5 fifth grade classes, a total of 103 students, so there will be a lot of hands to help. I'll be letting the art teacher keep my old singer machine in the classroom for the year and I'll be coming in on a regular basis to teach the kids. Once it's all put together, I think I'm going to have the kids sign their names in each of the white squares.

Want to help? Have any red and blue fabric scraps you have no use for or would like to donate? I'd love to use them for this project. The center of the quilt is made up of 5" charm squares and the 4 patches around the outside will be about 2.5"-3" squares, depending upon the middle border.

I wish I'd been given an opportunity like this when I was a kid to spark my love of quilting. I can't wait to get started!