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I am looking for some ideas. I teach catechism at my church. This year, I am teaching the 8th grage confirmation kids. Our director would like to work with me on possibly making some sort of quilts with the kids for display in the church. There are approximately 100 kids in this grade level. I could sure use some help in deciding on a project and how to handle something on this scale! Obviously each kid will make a block. Help!!! She would like to start discussing ideas in December! I don't want to go in without some concrete ideas. Has anyone ever done a crayon quilt, and are the kids too old for that. Can a crayon quilt be quilted on a longarm? Thanks everyone! :)

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http://www.glassthimble.com/Page8.htm

Here is a link to a project by kids with crayolas. Yes it can be quilted on a longarm.

You simply trace your design onto a cotton white fabric. I would prewash fabric and cut the squares. Lightly press and let the kids color it. Heat set with an iron. Use a pressing cloth to absorb the excess wax so not to get on your iron. Just type in Crayola quilts in the search and you will get all sorts of ideas. There is also a book out on this subject you might find in a local quilt shop or amazon.com.

Ideas of subjects to color is left to your imagination but there are alot of Coloring books based on faith and you might even find some iron on ones that can be colored.

They could simply just color whatever they want. I mean you will have childlike and older teens doing it but it will be very special with the mix of ages. With a hundred children you may end up with two. You could do one for the youth and teens.

Good luck sounds like a fun project. Also contact the local quild and see if a quilter will volunteer to quilt this project for you since it is for your church. There are many willing to do this. They may even have some idea to share with you.

My friend is a youth director and she is doing a photo quilt. The photos are of each child performing some sort of good deed for others. Some at Nursing homes, others are cleaning up the church grounds, helping do the yard for a church member who is ill. Delivering dinners for a holiday etc. This will be their BRAG quilt on their wonderful youth group. I thought it was a sweet idea. I'm quilting it for her when they get it done. It's a gift to their Church.

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Guest Linda S

If you want them to draw their own blocks, Fabrico Markers may be the way to go. Once heat-set, they are permanent and can be washed. Another idea would be to have them sew simple blocks like Friendship Star or something where they could write a favorite verse or part of a psalm in the middle. I did a quilt for my priest when he was retiring that had all sorts of photos (mostly nature photos) that I printed versus underneath. Then you can either sash the blocks or do crazy blocks around them. I'll see if I can find a picture of my quilt and come back and add pictures. This was pre-longarm days, so the quilting is pretty rudimentary.

Linda

Well - no detail pics on this computer, but I think you can get the general idea:

Quilt.jpg

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Guest Linda S

Good idea Dixie - also, draw the quarter inch seam allowance around the blocks. Most folks forget that you need space to sew them together!! In the pic above, a lot of the whiter spaces are where members of the congregation wrote notes to Father. We used pigma pens for that.

Linda

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I have bought a Dover type book of Religious Banners kind of made to make felt banners with. The patterns are in the book. You could make a few smaller ones or group four together. I wll search for my book but I just saw books 3 and 4 at a local quilt show. I would make fusible applique projects with these. The designs are cool enugh for our 9th graders to be okay with. Will look for that aughtor title. Acutally if I find it you could borrow it as well.

Sue

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Well that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The book is Banners with a Conscience by Dale Bargmann and many deal with a social issue although just as many are general praise topics.

The ones I saw a couple weeks ago are by a different author but shows you that they are out there. Your DRE may even have something on the shelf that she didn't think of in terms of a quilt. Another thought a tree of life. The Church name in shaped text to make the trunk and hand prints of the youth to make the leaves of the tree.

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Another thought--since the sacrament of confirmation is bestowing the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, could you do something really cool with hands and flames? Each kid could sign a flame that could surround a pair of hands or something.

If you have an artistic kid, he or she could draw or paint(or applique) a pair of outstretched hands on some fabric. You could hand out different strips of different red fabrics to each of the kids--the kids could sign the strip and cut out a flame shape. You could then apply the flames with Wonder Under, Heat 'n Bond, or whatever you use. You could raw edge applique too.

Quilting this would be lots of fun--and completely freehand. There is lots of creative possibility with different threads, metallics, etc.

Just a thought...

Crayon quilts are good, too...they are just sooo common. The 8th graders in CCD that I know need some "fire" under them if you know what I mean. You might get some that are really artistic and would volunteer to do most of the project because it's different. Getting 8th grade boys to draw with fabric on crayons may be a stretch..............

Best of luck!

Jill Kerekes

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Another idea: have each child draw around his/her hand on a plain block with crayon, then in the center print a scripture verse that means the most to them and sign their name. I made this quilt for a man in our church who as in a serious accident. Each member of the church did this and then I set them together; it was a two-sided quilt. We presented it to him at Christmas, which was his first service after his accident. There wasn't a dry eye in the church. It is one of my fondest quilt memories. - Sharon

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Barb;

My kids (3 out of 5) made their confirmations this past spring and had to do various projects as well...simiular to what you need to do but instead of making a quilt or quilts they had to make posters. The theme they had to work with was the fruits/ blessings of the holy spirit...(like peace, love, joy, patience etc...).

You could do something simiular with a quilt... start with a tree of life type design for the center of the quilt then have the kids do a siggy type leaf applique with the fruits of the holy spirit on them..then just fuse each of the leaves on the tree. This way you may be able to get away with just 1 or 2 quilts for the 100 kids that are making the confirmation verses lots of quilts to accomidate all the kids.

Let us know what you decide for their project :)

Joann

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