Blue Ribbon Winner

Last September I was approached by one of the ladies in our church asking me if I would be willing to make a quilt for the elementary school there.   A couple of weeks later I had a stack of squares that the fourth grade class had painted.   Each square was painted with a state flag.  The art teacher had painted several large pieces, each depicting landmarks of our country.   The trick for me was to assemble all these pieces into a quilt that would look interesting and a little different.

My goal was to arrange the largest pieces at strategic points in the quilt so your eye would travel around and take in the quilt as a whole.   Then, fill in with the flag blocks.

 

In previous years, the flag blocks all had sashing around them and were arranged symmetrically.    Not this year!   I had something else in mind.  

 

 

Normally the label is placed on the back of the quilt, but since this was going to be hung on a wall I felt the label should be on the front so anyone viewing it could read about the history of the quilt. 

 

 

Now that the label was on and the blocks all assembled, all that was left for me to do was to quilt it!  

 

 

The quilt was a bit of a rush job as the kids had just finished painting the squares two weeks before the school was holding an auction.   The quilt was to auctioned off that night to raise money for the school.   One lucky family bought the quilt and took it home with them.   I thought that was the last I would see of it.   Boy, was I wrong!

 

 

A few months later Joel and I were at the Florida State Fair.   We strolled through the building that housed the quilt show and then we had a real shocker.   The quilt from the school was in a showcase and it had a blue ribbon on it!    I can't remember when I was so excited.......I've never entered a quilt in a quilt show and couldn't believe what I was seeing.   Apparently, the new owners of the quilt had entered it on behalf of the students at the school.  

 

 

Amazing!   That was most definitely the most exciting trip to the Florida State Fair I've ever had! 

 

 

Kudos to the students and the art teacher who all did such a great job painting the squares.   It made my job a lot of fun and I was proud to help them complete their project.

 

Blue is my new favorite color,

Debbie