Perfectly Imperfect

This past November I worked on some sewing with the two 3rd grade classes at my daughter's school. They were learning about pioneers so we thought it would be a fun way to incorporate quilt-making. We talked about how the pioneer women made quilts and then we did some math too. Math is always a part of quilting!

The class quilts were put together over a few lessons using some fabric scraps donated by one of the teachers. Each of the students cut a square piece of fabric into fourths and then exchanged quarter squares with other classmates to make a 4 x 4 block.

Once their blocks were sewn together, we added a white border/frame. At this point, it wasn't possible to have every student sew, so a few students from each class were chosen to add the sashing between each framed block to make rows.

After the rows were completed, I took over and completed the quilts. The students all did a great job sewing and each block is uniquely made--that is exactly what makes these quilts perfectly imperfect!

This is the quilt made by my daughter's class:

The quilt made by the other 3rd grade class:

The quilts were finished on the last week of school. Phew! I'm glad I was able to get them completed before summer break and I'm glad I had the experience of sewing with such a fun group of kids!

You can see more photos of the process at my Flickr set "3rd Grade Quilts 2011-2012".

Some of the good and not so good (+/-) from this sewing experience:
+I had a great help putting this quilt together--39 3rd graders, to be exact.
+The wonkiness was unique and not contrived.
+Worked with the thread and fabric I had on hand or what was given to me by the 3rd grade teacher (except fo the back of the first quilt)
+I was okay with finishing the binding by hand on one quilt and then with the sewing machine on the other--time was not on my side.

-I broke two needles.
-I wound a bobbin incorrectly and had lots of tension issues!
-I quilted unevenly but I'm still happy with the end result.

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