7 Years of Carnival Quilts

Another post that sat unpublished.  This is from early spring 2020.  These quilts will always be remembered since that Spring Carnival was the very last thing we did just days before we went on lock down and the entire world changed.  The quilts did eventually get to their winners.

Imagine my surprise when my new job paired me with Ms. D for whom I have been making Carnival Auction Quilts for the last 6 years!  We are "switch" teachers - I teach Reading and Social Studies, she teaches Math and Science and our homerooms switch mid-day.  So I had a built-in opportunity to have the kids in both homerooms make their signature blocks. 

I also took advantage of the slight lull in academics before Christmas and took in my sewing machine so the kids could actually sew part of the quilt.  They likened the experience to driving a car - some were cautious and some were reckless.  Overall, a very good experience. 

I had hoped to get the quilts made during the Christmas break, but that didn't happen.  Ms. D is for sure getting a new student after the break and there is a strong possibility that I will as well.  So I am holding off a bit.  I did get all the ironing and squaring up done. 

Tentative layout, but I'll make it be longer than wide.

The new student in the switch class throws off my original layout, but since all the hourglass blocks were made by the kids I don't want to change to sashing.  There are also 2 kids who never finished their blocks so holding out for them also.  I can add a block to represent the school if needed.  It will all work out.

My class added blue borders to their blocks as a built in sashing.  They had to think about it.  Odd numbers had short strips on the sides; even numbers had short strips on the top & bottom.  That way only the corners have to match and not each strip.  I kept them in their class order even though some of the same fabrics ended up next to each other.  I thought that the familiar order was more important for the kids than visually pleasing to me.  I'm not going to buy it - they are.  I did go ahead and sew them together leaving a space just in case.  If we don't get a new student I will put the block to represent the school on the front.  Since I have an associate (we are the "overflow" class) our blocks will go on the back to make the array work on the front.  There's no way I would get 4 new kids this month - is there??

The kids were very curious about why one class made hour glasses and the other class made sashing. I was able to talk about arrays and how the quilt has to make an array somehow in order to work.  Different numbers make different arrays.  They understood that and saw their math in action.  Win win!

D Quilt Finished