Festival quilts

My son's school has a big fall festival each year, and it culminates with a silent auction. Each class is responsible for putting together a basket for the auction. I use the word "basket" lightly--it's really a huge display of themed items that will go home with the highest bidder. This year, we're doing a zoo-themed basket, and I'm sure you won't be surprised that I made a quilt.


I had some half yards of Happy Drawing fabric left over, so I staggered them with fabric from my stash. Simple, but it shows off the zoo-like animals in the prints.


I did some loopy quilting.


The dragon print got relegated to the back, because dragons aren't technically zoo animals, I'm told. Sorry, dragons. I just had a bit of the giraffes left, so I squeezed those in on the back too.



Just as a point of reference, I also bought this polar bear for the "basket."

Another class asked me to make a quilt for their basket too. They collected a bunch of T-shirts and requested a picnic-size T-shirt quilt. I'd never made a T-shirt quilt before, and I found them frightening, but I couldn't say no. So, after seeking out some online tutorials (I found this one particularly helpful),  getting some advice from Michelle, and procrastinating a whole lot, I got to work. I have to say, it wasn't as bad as expected (I expected it to be really bad, so I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't live down to my expectations!).


Yes, they're heavy, and the T-shirts were tricky to work with (I used interfacing, but they're still stretchy and rolly). But I think it will make a nice picnic quilt!




Really not worth showing you the back, but I used a blue Kona solid (along with a bit of red Kona because I ran out of blue).

 
 I quilted in vertical lines, about 3 or 4 inches apart.


And now...back to my regularly scheduled Christmas quilting.