Need suggestions for school patchwork

How about the self adhesive velcro - that way there would be no stitching to show through onto the front of the design. IMNSHO even sewn on velcro would be nigh on invisible of you used a white thread and sewed it onto each hemmed square *before* the children did their bit. I would recommend hemming the squares first, because that way there is no chance of losing any part of the design in the hemming process, or any bits falling off! If you can convince her to use velcro the squares could be mounted onto a backing material of a contrasting colour eliminating the need to sew sashing to anything.

Lizzy

Do you think it would work if you made the top hem ( and maybe even the bottom hem) a casing and then ran a cord or fishing line through the casings and tacked the cord to a backing banner? Forgive me if that made no sense. I can SEE it but not express it too clearly.

Rita L.

Melanie Rimmer wrote:

You could bind them and put a grommet in each corner. (Might be easier just to add a backing, sew around RST with an opening to turn, turn and press, and stitch once around the entire edge.) Then make a separate square for the "label", maybe including the school name, class, date. This would be the bit with the pocket, or however you need to attach to a pole. Also with grommets. Then tie the pieces together corner to corner with ribbons through the holes. Roberta in D

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Shoot, she's not asking for much.... just a minor miracle??? First, I'd ask how the other school made theirs and if it disassembles the way this teacher wants your project. Use their method if it will work. If not, since she doesn't sew, explain to her how she's made it nearly impossible for you to do anything with the children's art work. Long stitches by hand won't stand up to much abuse as a banner- as you already know. The teacher is going to have to do some giving here! One possibility would be to copy the children's artwork onto fabric- use a scanner and color printer and then do not use the originals but piece the copies together any way you like. And I wouldn't mess with the special fabrics and/or chemicals but just print right onto freezer paper backed fabric. Other than that, I'm stumped but wish you luck. I think you may need it. :-/

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

You could join the art work by using an embroidery stitch on your machine or a wide zig-zag stitch with a small space between the fabric so it isn't butted up against each other.. Then at the end of the school year just cut through the stitching and hand each child their art. Just a thought! Barbara in FL

I would serge the edges -- easier than hemming and not real noticeable if you use white thread. Or trim with a scalloped or pinking rotary cutter blade. Get a colored sheet in a bright color. You may even be able to use the top hem for a casing. Or use fabric and hem the edges, using a wide enough hem at the top for a casing. Pin the squares to the sheet, evenly spaced, a pin in each corner of the square. If you can pin from the back, the pins will hardly be noticeable. I don't think small safety pins on the front would be terribly distracting; after all this is a kid's project. It would be easy to make and easy to dissemble.

Julia in MN

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Melanie Rimmer wrote:

I would put it all together with about a 4" piece of sashing. You could then back the banner. At the end of the year you just cut down the middle of all the sashing. Really easy, cheap and not time consuming. You have not damaged the blocks and each child gets a little border on his block when he/she takes it home.

Clever. I like it!

GMTA

Exactly what I was thinking Rita!

Oh! here is another way I just thought of this second! Even if you didn't make a caseing you could run a wide zigzag over fishing line and just chain the pieces along the line, and knot or tack (to a tassel or the like maybe?) the line at the ends. There you have your banner, and all you have to do is just snip the line to seperate them, the line will slide right out from under the zig zag. You could do it again at the bottom if you wanted a more solid looking banner. If you have to stack two chains just a hand stitch connecting mostly the line at the intersections would be all you needed. You could tack the sleeve on at the top in the same way.

NightMist

How about sashing them all... and then "quilting" it with a stitch in the ditch around their artwork and then maybe a straight line 1/4" in from the ditch on both sides of the sashing.

Then when the year is over... just lay it down... and rotary cut each square in the center of the sashings... and each child will have little "framed" piece of their artwork.

You could add a tiny sleeve at the top and slide in a thin piece of molding that would give it body to hang.

Just my ideas...

I posted before I read your post Jan... Great Minds Think Alike! LOL