September is one of the best times of the year! The garden produce makes wonderful dinners, the orchards are loaded with fruit, and the evenings and mornings have a crispness that reminds us that winter is coming. It also spells the excitement of school starting again, and that inevitably brings the school carnival.
I do not know why the schools choose September for this annual event. They have just picked everyone's pocket for fees (nearly $300 for each junior high or high school student), and many people shell out money for new school clothes, too --- nobody is ready for another fundraiser! This weekend, our family has two carnivals, back-to-back; four children attend one grade/middle school and a fifth is in another. And each child is to donate something. So that means quilting for me.
In one school, the students from each grade assembles themed gift baskets. Our kindergartener took a pink quilt, nearly 45 inches square, to contribute to the baby gift basket his class was working on. Our other children, whose classes gathered camping, golf, or spa collections, were given other items. This cheery quilt, cut and completed after kindergarten one afternoon, was bound to be my favorite! Many of the fabrics had hearts or bubble dots. It was sent off to school the following morning.
The purple sister of the first quilt was sewn together and sent off the day after its twin. The three-and-a-half-inch squares were cut at the same sitting as the pink ones were. Strips were sewn together in threes, then these were cut into strips of three squares. Stitched together in random Nine Patch blocks, they were shuffled into place on the floor in such a way that no matching squares shared a side. Sixteen blocks were stitched together, then an extra row was sewn onto two sides, to make thirteen rows (just because I think an odd number of rows looks more pleasing.
I cannot say which ended up being my favorite, for each is charming. The meandering, loopy, stipple quilting will make the cotton batting in each pucker nicely when it is washed. Each quilt is backed with flannel, which I think is cozy for the coming cold weather --- one of the "real" reasons we make quilts!
