Whew! It has been a busy month or so. Finally finished this Nevada History Quilt. I had a group of 4th Graders involved in a Math, Reading, and Social Studies enrichment project last year. The school principal had suggested the quilt as a fundraiser for the annual 4th Grade overnight trip to Fort Churchill for an experience in living history. Luckily, I had an experienced quilter in my classroom for part of the day as the instructional assistant. She worked with the enrichment group -- researching Nevada history (a 4th grade history standard), choosing important Nevada events and icons, and designing the quilt layout.
The instructional assistant moved away during the last four weeks of the project. We knew she was leaving before the end of the school year, but not that soon! She and I made schematic drawings of the quilt with handwritten measurements. But how to put it together? What section first? Which border first? Over the next several months, I learned a lot about quilt design.
The project seemed never ending. I made the usual mistakes -- cutting fabric in the wrong direction, sewing a part on upside down, and sewing inconsistent seams between the letters. The teacher who had been planning these trips for 20 years suddenly retired, and the rest of 4th Grade teachers decided to discontinue the yearly field trips. So what was to be done with the quilt, if I ever got it finished?
For the past ten years, there was one parent who had worked preparing 4th graders for the overnight trips. She and I decided that the quilt should probably go to the teacher who had initiated the living history project so long ago.
Meanwhile, what to do about quilting this thing? A quilter from my guild said she would quilt it for free. The she thought that $40 would be a fair price. After a few months, she decided not to do the quilting at all. I felt lucky to get the quilt back. She disappeared from the guild and her phone number was disconnected. A local quilt shop wanted over $150 to do the long-arm quilting. The quilter said she would do it at home on the side doing free-motion quilting on her domestic machine. Quilting and fusible batting for $95. Done! The quilting looks great.
That retired teacher who had begun the living history program all those years ago? She was in our building as a long-term substitute since the third week of school. We gave the quilt to her at the end of the year during a lunch period when this year's and last year's students were there.
I swore off doing any more quilt projects related to my school. Then someone left a T-shirt in the lounge. There was a sign on it -- "FREE." I snatched it up. I could cut off the embroidered part and put it in the center of a quilt. Then eQuilter had the dolphins fabric on sale. We are the Silver Lake Dolphins.
So in the next couple of weeks I'll be designing something wonderful in Electric Quilt! It should be a great project to work on when school starts again in August.
And then I'm not doing any more school-related quilts! (Famous last words.)
