After a rather jam packed week of stitching and various school events I have managed to finish my quilt of the Century! Whoo hooo for me!!
I think I've had an out of body experience with it all. Setting such a huge challenge, arranging with a very patient Head of the school and All of the staff, fitting in with numerous special days and school trips, I have not had time to think about it too much.
I started this on the 22nd of May with Yr6's dyeing the yards of fabric and it had to be finished by the 13th of July for the school Parade.
This is the final layout of panels, before stitching the long lengths and binding.
Mr Webster wanted the children's memories of New Bradwell incorporated onto the quilt somewhere, so we decided that each class would have a panel of the squares to draw on. These 16 panels were then stitched together to make the final quilt.
Some of the detail was amazing and each year group have certainly had a full and inspiring year of activities!
F1 - these are 3-4 year olds: lots of gardens and butterflies a hot cross bun and some frogs.
A year 1 class: a visit to the church, a visit to a Safari Park and the lifecycle of butterflies.
A year 5 class: a visit to the RAF museum and the theatre and the O2 arena for the young voices concert.
So here I stand rather warm and exhausted with the finished quilt. Overall the colours and details work well I think. There will always be bits I would have done differently given time to think and the benefit of hind site, but it's up and every child in the school took part in the project.
Detail of the 435 squares:
There were no great trauma's and every child took great pride in their work, what a pleasure this was to make this with them - honest!
Thank you New Bradwell children and staff for letting me loose in your school.
Jane x
(Mrs Charles)
That is the most amazing quilt! I can't imagine how you managed to get so many children to do so much...such a mammoth effort...i think the quilt looks really incredible!
ReplyDeleteThanks Trixi, I think I relied upon my sparking personality and not taking 'no' for an answer with the children, I was well practiced in the techniques and left nothing to chance. The staff were also very supportive and I could not have done it in 7 weeks without their flexibility in their days!
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