Whether you're planning a quilt as a
keepsake for a bar mitzvah, or as a huppa for a wedding, you may want to ask friends and family members to contribute.
You then assemble their work into a quilt. There are several ways to
go about this.
Option 1: COLLECT BLOCKS IN ADVANCE
One option for a group quilt project is to give or send out pieces of fabric well in advance of the event, for friends and family members to sign and/or decorate.
This kind of project requires considerable planning and lead time. Not to
mention nudging and the kvetching,
which, in Yiddish syntax, must always precede kvelling.
You
will need to have some kind of quilt design in mind. The most obvious
choice---sending everyone some kind of square or rectangular, which you will
then piece into a quilt---is not the best choice. Because if you are
counting on contructing your quilt from 42 of those blocks, set in seven rows of
six, made by 42 contributors, you must think about what
you'll do if three of the planned contributors don't come through. At the
last minute. After she promised repeatedly that she would .
Sending people
shapes that you will later APPLIQUE onto the quilt is a more forgiving plan.
(Shapes can be hexagons, like one quilt that's in the
Gallery page; or the shapes can represent something, like leaves, which you can sew onto a tree background; or hot air balloons,
which can go onto a sky---butterflies on flowers, fish on
bicycles, use your
imagination!) That way, you can construct and finish the rest of the
quilt, and attach the appliques as they come in. And it won't be a disaster
if some contributions don't show up, or they show up a year after the event.
If
you're going to do it through the mail, it is vital to create a procrastination-proof kit
to send all the participants. At the minimum, the kit should include:
- A letter with clear directions and a DEADLINE IN REALLY BIG
BOLD
LETTERS. FOLLOWED BY LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS !!!!!!!!
Ideally, the deadline should be close to their receipt of your
package (so they don't hide it under a pile of papers)---like maybe two
weeks---and a month to six months in advance of the quilt
presentation, depending on how fast you sew.
There are going to be laggards no matter what, so expect to be on
the phone and or email, reminding people one week before they're
due, and I am sorry to say, long after they're due. Many people are
art-phobic. Explain to them that it's okay if they just sign the block and
send it right back---they don't have to be Marc Chagall.
My kits always contain:
- Fabric cut to the proper shape and size and ironed onto freezer paper
- A permanent ink pen,
- A return envelope, addressed to you, with proper postage.
Details and Procedure:
Buy enough yards of a good-quality, 100% cotton, plain, light-colored fabric for every participant to have a piece.
And while you're at the quilt store, buy a roll of Reynolds freezer paper (if not, try the supermarket). You will use this to back the fabric you're sending out.
At home, launder and iron fabric. Then, cut it into pieces of the desired shape and size.
Iron the fabric pieces to a slightly bigger piece of freezer paper, with the
waxed side against the back of the fabric. The freezer paper makes the
fabric much easier to draw on.. Tell people that if the fabric comes loose
from the freezer paper, they should re-iron it down. Be sure to emphasize to them that
they need to sign the FABRIC side, not the paper side!! You might
want to draw an x through the paper side, just to make sure. You'd be
surprised how many people can't tell the difference between fabric and
paper.
If the shape you are sending will have a seam allowance, use a light pencil or wash-out pen (from the fabric store) to
mark scant 1/4" seam allowance lines around all the edges of the fabric piece. Non-quilters have a hard time comprehending that their decoration or signature must stay inside the seam allowance. Make it
stunningly obvious.
Enclose a fine point permanent pen. Some are quite expensive. Others leak
and spread ink all over the fabric, so you have to test first. Thick tipped
laundry pens look really bad. My current favorite for signature quilts
are Sharpie (r) Ultra Fine Point permanent black pens, sold by the dozen at
reasonable prices. Or you can send out
fancier, and more expensive fine-point fabric pens. Tell the recipients
that, at a minimum, they should just sign the block with the given pen. But
it will be a lot more exciting (and dangerous) if you give them the option
to use their own supplies and talent to embellish the block. Just make
it clear that their decoration should be washable (unless you are certain
this quilt will never be washed). Spell it out as clearly as possible. If,
like me,
you loathe puff paints, then write "NO PUFF PAINTS PLEASE!" But write it
bigger, with more exclamation points. It may not work.
Option 2: Gather Signatures at the Event
There are a lot of Judaic quilters out there doing
this, ESPECIALLY for bar and bat mitzvahs. Read more about this on my
Bar/Bat Mitzvah page of this website; and at my
www.partyquilt.com website.
A quilt that people sign at the party has a lot of advantages, the primary
one being that not nearly as much lead time is required as for Option 1.
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