3rd grade classroom quilt

How about tracing each child's hands in a muslin square and letting them decorate it with fabric markers. They could then be incorporated into a final quilt in lots of different ways.

Diana - PA

Noah's Ark: Different animals around or below the Ark. They could use fabric crayons on calico and some BIG stitiches for embellishment (or not). Buttons for eyes go well.

My House: Then put the houses on a street, or in a town or round the school.

People who help us: A fireman, doctor, nurse, teacher, policeman etc, etc. A border of hands.

People around the world: Loads of costumes collaged onto a basic set of 'persons' maybe a girl and boy of each costume. This is good if you have a good ethnic mix in the class, too.

A theme from the reading scheme. I'm not up to date with the ones used, especially over there, but there is usually something that can be gleaned from the books.

Above all. Ask the teacher. She/he will have some ideas based on what is going on, or would be appropriate.

Enjoy! Nel (GQ)

One interesting thing I have seen for quilts involving kids is making a quilt in which each child makes a block -- not as difficult as you might think, by the way! You cut blocks of white fabric, one for each child. The size can be anything, but should be large enough for the child to draw a picture. Now, here comes a waste of fabric, but bear with me -- since you will be taping the fabric to cardboard, you need the block to be at larger all the way around than you want the finished block to be, so if you want 10" for the final block, cut your fabric blocks about 12". Now, take some ordinary masking tape and tape each block to a piece of cardboard, taping all the way around and making sure the fabric is smooth. (Or you could staple it to the cardboard. Whatever is handy.) Take a pencil and mark the seam lines. Now, take an ordinary crayon and mark a heavy "frame" around the edge, about 1/4" to 1" from where your seam line will be. (You want the crayon frame to show!) You can use one color, two colors, or any combination of colors, but all should be bright, strong colors. Now it's time for the kids, so get out lots of crayons, and have each child draw a picture or make a design on his block. Pressing the crayons "hard" makes a better picture. When the kids are finished, leave the blocks taped to the cardboard, get out some paper bags to use as "pressing cloths" and iron each block on high heat setting to melt the color into the fabric. The cardboard and paper bags will protect your ironing board and your iron. Trim the blocks leaving a seam allowance, assemble your quilt top, and then you are ready to assemble and quilt. Or, simply add something for an edging and then hang it on the wall without making an actual quilt. Depending on the number of kids, you may need to add some blocks -- name of school, name of teacher, school mascot, dates, names of kids, etc.

One thing -- before you buy fabric, cut up a lot of good cardboard boxes, etc., you really should make a block or two at home to try out the technique! And you will have something to show the kids so they have an idea about the actual quilt they will be making blocks for. But this technique really does work! It's a lot of work getting everything prepped, and work assembling and finishing, but the kids have fun, and the finished product is a great display in the classroom.

Does she want to make the whole quilt or involve the class? (Warning: involving the whole class may turn into an every year project!! Each class will want their own quilt.)

For a class room quilt that carries through there are lots of options. For "just" decoration an old time (or newer) schoolhouse block quilt comes to mind. There are probably some traditional block names that might relate to school. Those blocks could be combined in a sampler. Applique ideas should be all over the place..... coloring books or work sheets come to mind. Or blocks representing the curriculum of her school and year. Or just curriculum in general since she might end up teaching another grade level at some point. ( Math: numbers and symbols, or a basic math problem worked out. Reading: books. Writing: letters, both block and cursive?? Geography: a globe, or outline of the state/US. History: an image representing something from local history. and so on. )

Eleanor Burns also has a classroom/teacher oriented "Quilt in a Day" book, "It's Elementary" (Or something with elementry in it. sigh)

Hope this helps. Pati, in Phx

Thank you everyone for the excellent suggestions!

Trixie

saw a rerun of this method on Simply Quilts.could be made either with or without the kids help.should appeal to them either way.using words appropriate to the class/school/ teacher but with few letters was the suggestion. i liked the texture added. so many places to find good textures. she used at least 3 on each block. she 'pen stitched' round each pix on that design but other quilts of the same type were shown where she had used several strands of embroidery black thread and did big stitching round them as the quilting design itself. get simple pix from kids colouring books, on or offline books. no wonder that is why there are so many crayon colours available. fwiw, j.

"Trixie" wrote ... My sister wants to make a quilt for her daughter-in-law the 3rd grade teacher's classroom wall. Suggestions?

Trixie