More than a Sneak Peek ~ School Charity Banner

Lest you think all I've been doing lately is enjoying the spring weather and eating chocolate bunnies, I thought it might be a good idea to pop in here quickly and show you what I've accomplished since the last sneak peek of this quilting project almost two weeks ago.

If you recall, the last time all I had to show was a pile of fusible webbing with pencil tracings all over it and piles of fabrics with the webbing fused onto it. Take a look at what that has become...


Carolers and a Christmas tree...


...canned goods...


...a cow (yep, it's the cow from the Heifer Project logo!)...


...and many other fabric representations of the charities for which my children's school has raised money this year. You can see in the picture above that some of the blocks have already been fused and some are still awaiting their date with the hot iron. They also are not in their final order for the banner.

After all the pieces for each picture were fused onto the white background fabric blocks, black zig zag outlining was done on every piece of fabric.


The less complicated designs also received an additional background of a light gray circle.


Every stop and start of the black thread was pulled through to the back side and tied off and then threaded under a few stitches before being clipped off. This project took more time and used more thread than I ever imagined!


This block in particular was quite labor intensive, but it is one of my favorites. It will have a few embellishments added to it before the banner is complete too. There will be a little red button sewn onto the very top of the baseball hat and a little twisted yellow ribbon stitched to the front of the hat. The bandanna fabric you see peeking out from under the hat will also be tied into a knot and stitched on just at the base of the hat so it looks like the bandanna is tied onto the head. Hats on Day is a fund raiser for children with cancer.


I was amazed at how much better the black outlining made the designs look. I think it really makes them pop!


After all the outlining was finished, I trimmed the blocks down to 8 1/2 inches and sewed on the sashing so that it looks like windows. In this picture above, the charities represented are Christmas gifts for St. Anna Parish to give to local families in need, Jump for the Heart which is a program through the American Heart Association benefiting heart patients, the Heifer Project, and the Christmas caroling the school children did at one of our local assisted living facilities.


These charities are: the Montachusett Interfaith Hospitality Network which I have mentioned here before when I made my charity quilt for them, Operation Rice Bowl for Catholic Relief Services, Pasta for Pennies which is a program of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society raising money for children and adults with cancer, and then Hats on Day which I've already mentioned.


And these are the last four charities represented in this banner: collecting canned goods for Matthew 25 society of St. Anna Parish for needy families, Clean Water for All which is a program that builds wells in Liberia, Project R.O.S.E. which is Reach Out to Save the Elderly, and Hearts for Heat which was a bake sale fund raiser where our local oil company, Fraticelli Oil, matched the money raised to help seniors in need of heating assistance.


So there is the bottom part of the banner all finished, except for the little embellishments I still need to sew on. I have been working on the top part of the banner which will hopefully look like the roof line and arch of the school entrance. So far it's coming out pretty well. And it will also say the school name and refer to the theme of the event for which this banner is being made. It will say St. Anna School says YES! So still a little work to do, but I am pleased with the results so far.

And just so you know, we have not been enjoying beautiful spring weather here lately except for an hour or two here and there just to tease us! It's been cold and wet and dreary, which is perfect weather to keep me happy in my sewing room! As for eating the chocolate bunnies...well, I might have had a few!

Happy Stitching!

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