a West U quilt

Welcome to my post for the fall Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy of Park City Girl. The quilt I wish to feature is one that was made especially for the 80th anniversary of ...

West University Elementary School.

This is a T-shirt quilt featuring t-shirts from school spirit shirts as well as many school activities (book fair, auction, carnival, etc.) My challenging task was to assemble this diverse collection into one cohesive quilt, and finish it in time for the PTO's fundraising auction (nothing like a firm deadline to crunch then rush one's creative energy).


After much struggling with a uniform block size, I chose to trim each item, leaving a 1" - 2" border framing the individual logos. Next stumbling block was to add borders to these trimmed blocks. Could I find one fabric to use for all the blocks, uniting the quilt? No. Instead I opted to frame each logo with a themed print in colors to match. This required shopping for fabrics such as hot-air balloon, jungle, & golf prints (a delightful task). With school colors of red, white and blue, the spirit shirts were the easiest to frame. As I pieced the fabrics around the t-shirt logos, the blocks grew larger, still keeping their different sizes and shapes. Sewing the blocks together into one quilt top required more puzzling and thinking. Look closely to spy the spacer bars of school-themed prints I added to fill in gaps. The final outer border, an alphabet print, unified the diverse blocks into one quilt.

Curious note: Some of the blocks are not t-shirts. They are scanned and printed images from an original item loaned for this copying purpose. One logo was actually cut-out from a baseball cap ... can you guess which one that is?

I must extend special Thank you's to:
Kay for printing the computer transfers;
Carrell for donating many of her own t-shirts;
Avril and Catherine who worked tirelessly remembering which events were missing and hunting down someone with the logo to share.
and last but not least, Thank you to Mike Walton of Astro Quilting Systems (713-522-7876) for the custom machine quilting that finishes this school quilt.

For all my friends and acquaintances .... no, I do not make t-shirt quilts, but fear not ... I have not one, but two friends that do. If you are interested in turning your child's keepsake t-shirts into a one-of-a-kind memory quilt please contact either of these friends:

Sharon Dixon's Katy T-shirt Quilts
and
Betty Baker's T-Shirt Quilts of Texas

Last note: the quilt was not complete at the time of the school auction (Hurricane Katrina and a broken arm interrupted the progress that fall). Nevertheless, the quilt-top was a hot item at the auction that attracted many, until the bidders united to purchase the quilt and donate it back to the school! I could not be more pleased! My quilt now hangs in the front entry of West University Elementary School.

West U Art-Night Quilt

One of the best things about our elementary school are the Extra-Curricular Nights sponsored by our PTO. I jumped in our Kindergarten year to help with Art Night (There is also International, Math, & Science Nights). Art Night is geared specifically toward our Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders and features both demonstrations and make-n-take projects.

The theme that year, 2004, focused on artists & craftsmen. A Potter was throwing clay on a wheel and children received their own lump of clay to mold and shape. A Jewelry artist had a display of her creations and assisted the kids in making their own beaded bracelets. A local Portrait Painter taught children how to draw a person or a dog (most chose to draw the dog, naturally). There were several others as well (but they've slipped from my memory). I was the Quilter and brought several of my quilts to share. My station had not one but two quilt-design related activities.

My first activity was for the children to experience the joy of designing a quilt block using two basic shapes. These new quilters had a large variety of fabric squares and triangles (all pre-cut from my stash) and a few sample "classic" nine-patch blocks to get them started. To keep it a short-easy-to-do project, they simply used glue stick to fasten their design onto a piece of cardstock. It was fun to watch the kids (& the non-quiting parents) agonize over color options, block arrangement &/or basic design. While many made one block and moved on to the next activity quickly, a large number asked to make two lingering long past the allotted time.

My second project was not a make-n-take one, but rather to make a block to be used in a quilt for the next school auction. The children were to draw something colorful on the prepared blocks. My idea had been to make three separate quilts for the next year's school auction, one for each of the grade levels attending Art Night. In actuality, three quilts were not made for two reasons: many wanted to keep their colorfully drawn designs and those leaving theirs as instructed forgot to sign their name &/or grade on the freezer paper back. I did have enough to make a nice twin size quilt. Here are a few photos of the top before it was quilted.

This is the top left corner. Sharpies of all colors were the tools provided. Word of caution: be sure to be in a well-ventilated room when working with this many participants as multiple Sharpies open at once is quite fragrant!

This is the top right corner. I love the colorful kid-face-print fabric used for the borders. It has all the colors of the Sharpies and fabrics used in the quilt blocks and sashings.

Here are six blocks from the center of the quilt. Each block was bordered on two sides (right and lower sides) with different bright fabrics that coordinated with the block itself and with the border print. An additional row along the top and left sides completed the framed-block sashing look.

Here is the finished quilt before going to Mike Walton of Astro Quilting for his masterful work (oh to have time, money and space to be my own long-armer! maybe one day ....)

This is the lower right corner. The label appears on the front to finish the quilt to be 10 rows of 7 blocks apiece. Isn't it nice when the math works out so easily?

The quilt was sold in the school auction, bringing in a hefty amount for the PTO coffers that year. I will have to get a photo of the finished quilt to add to this post .... one day. Two years later I became the Chair of Art Night -- but that's a story to tell another day ....